Dressed sharply in suits and ties, students from the Broken Ground School Gents Club sat in rows at the New Hampshire Supreme Court Monday ready to meet Chief Justice Gordon MacDonald.
The curious students clapped when MacDonald walked in and peppered him with questions about how long he has been chief justice, the identities of the judges in the portraits hanging on the walls of the courtroom, and why he doesn’t use a gavel.
One student asked MacDonald how it feels to be chief justice.
“It’s a great responsibility,” a smiling MacDonald told the students. “It is a really, really important job, because people’s lives are in your hands. People’s matters that are really important to them are in your hands. You’ve got to make sure you do everything you can to get the right result.”
MacDonald took the students on a tour through the building, where they were allowed to sit in the justice’s chairs and stand behind the lawyer podiums, and go inside the law library. They even got a rare glimpse inside the judicial conference room where the justices do their deliberations, an ornate room with lined with bookshelves holding New Hampshire law texts.
“What is the silliest case you’ve had to decide?” one student asked.
“I’ll have to think on that one,” MacDonald said, laughing.
The Gents club, which has the motto “look good, feel good, do good,” offers boys in the 21c after-school program the chance to learn about dressing sharply, practicing health and mindfulness and giving back to their community. The students learn how to give good handshakes, practice good sportsmanship and tie a necktie, as well as conflict resolution skills, helping their neighbors and volunteering in their community.
“Different opportunities arise and we always jump on them if we can, because it’s so important to give the kids as many experiences as you can,” said Sue Farrelly, Concord School District’s afterschool director. “And these are things that the school day doesn’t do. Especially in the last few years with COVID we weren’t doing any field trips, so this is a big deal for them.”
The group was partly started as a way to offer boys some leadership programming similar to what Girls Inc., Girls on the Run, and Girls at Work offer for girls.
“The whole idea is, ‘what do you do when you’re in a place like this?’ You don’t wear your sweatpants and your hat on backward,” said Farrelly. “Just to try to show them things that they may not see in their everyday lives.”
The club garnered some online attention earlier this year when art teacher Karen McCormack made a post on Facebook seeking new or gently used neckties, button-down shirts, jackets and khakis for the students to wear to school concerts and formal events. The Department of Education grant that funds the 21c program doesn’t cover clothing. McCormack explained in the post that many of the students didn’t have formal wear at home. Her request was shared 237 times and people from across the country donated suits for the students to wear.
Farrelly said Chief Justice McDonald invited the students to tour the Supreme Court after seeing the online post, to show them a space where people regularly wear suits for work.
The students gave a presentation to the Concord School Board at its March 7 meeting, and have been interviewed by 105.5 WJYY DJ Nazzy. They’ve also met with Nazzy and with members of the Concord Police Department, who sponsored some of their clothing.
The Nita M. Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Center, also known as 21C, is a federal grant awarded to the Concord School District for an after-school program. The school partners with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Central NH to offer homework help, health and fitness activities and activities like cooking, art, music, theater and more. Programs are held at Broken Ground, Mill Brook, Rundlett and Concord High. About 71 students participate in Broken Ground School’s 21c program this year, with a list of about 21 more who are still waiting to get involved in the program, according to Farrelly.