Jessica Gandy is a teacher by day, student by night. But she’s not just any teacher, and she’s not just any student.
Gandy is an English teacher in a Clark County School District consequence school, which provides education to students who have been expelled from secondary schools by the Board of School Trustees. She is also pursuing her law degree through the UNLV Boyd School of Law's evening program.
Comparing it to juvenile hall, Gandy said, “The only difference between the two is that our students can go home at the end of the day. These students are everything from violent felons to teenagers who made poor choices and got caught. The 18-year-old awaiting trial for felony assault is in the same classroom with the 15-year-old who smoked marijuana before school and arrived in class high.”
And they come to her in two varieties: scared and not scared.
“Those who are scared do not want to cause any problems or be involved with anyone who does. They do their work, behave like model citizens, and never cause disruption,” she said. “Most, however, are not scared. They have seen every corner of the juvenile justice system — many have a piece of it strapped to their ankles — and (it seems) there is nothing anyone can say or do to convince them that education is an important part of the future.”
But that doesn’t stop Gandy from trying.
“We work hard to get students to see that an educated life is safer than the life they currently live,” she said. “Sometimes it works; other times it doesn’t.”
Though the work is arduous, it hasn’t stopped the part-time evening student from getting involved at the UNLV William S. Boyd School of Law. Gandy currently serves as the vice president (part-time division) of the Student Bar Association. She’s also a mentor for the Center for Academic Success and Enrichment and a staff member of the Nevada Law Journal. During the last academic year, she served as president of the Organization of Part-time and Non-traditional Law Students; vice president of Legally Speaking, a Toastmasters chapter for Boyd School of Law students; and a class representative on the Student Bar Association Board of Governors.
