English teacher Andrew Freeburg will march off to jail with his head held high on Thursday, April 29, along with his first hour class.  Why? To learn about prison life.

                The class will tour the old Milwaukee County Jail, which has no prisoners.  They will then meet with a district attorney to learn about the law system, and they will view a live court case.

                Freeburg’s class has been looking for prison experience.  They have read various pieces of literature about a prison guard’s experience and watched a documentary about a man who spent 30 days in jail. 

                Freeburg explains more about the trip.  “I decided to have the students decide what they should do and opened the options to them,” he said.  “Two of my students, Christine Laube and Sabrina Black, said they wanted to visit an actual jail.  I said if they can make it happen, then we’ll go.  And they made it happen.”

                Senior Christine Laube shared how they got the trip approved.  “When Freeburg allowed us to pick what we’d do, we wanted to go above the experience and visit a jail,” Laube said.  “A lot of the planning was put into phone tag.  We called the Waukesha county jail to ask for a tour, but they only offered a movie.  So we called the jail in Milwaukee County and they said they could give us a tour, meet with a DA [District Attorney] and see a live court case.”

                This visitation will not become a yearly tradition.  “The point of this was it to be self-directed,” Freeburg said.  “I will never offer this as an option in future years and it will not become a tradition.”