COUNTYWIDE : Attorneys to Honor Docent for Her 16 Years of Courtroom Tours

In 1976, when Peggy Purnell led her first school tour of the Ventura County courts system, the sixth-grade students asked to see Perry Mason, the fictional attorney with his own television show.

Now, 16 years and 80,000 schoolchildren later, Purnell fields children’s requests to meet Judge Wapner, the real-life judge on the popular TV show “The People’s Court.”

“The kids usually come here expecting to see some dramatic courtroom scene or murder trial, just like they see on TV,” Purnell said. But after spending a few hours on the court tour, the students learn that the actual legal system differs from Hollywood’s version.

Because of Purnell’s educational efforts, the Ventura County Bar Assn. will honor her with the 1992 Liberty Bell Award on May 26 at the monthly dinner meeting of the Ventura Trial Lawyers Assn.

Purnell, along with Mindy Johnson, now a Superior Court judge, and Carolann Smith, an attorney’s wife, formed the local court tours program in 1976. They modeled the program on similar tour programs in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. The three women spent 10 weeks educating themselves and 20 other docents on the basics of the legal system before launching Ventura County’s program.

Since then, the tours have attempted to teach young adults how the legal system works, from problem to resolution. The tours cater to sixth-, eighth-, and 12th-grade students, although adult groups and foreign- exchange students occasionally reserve tours, said Purnell, who is married to Superior Court Judge Roland Purnell.

The tours typically consist of 35 to 40 students who follow the steps through the court system, beginning with jails, winding through the jury process and touching on the various support systems.

Students who take the tours often walk away with new goals. “I had one girl who wrote to say that, before the tour, she had no goals in life. But after going on the court tours, she knew that she wanted to be a court reporter,” Purnell said.

One teacher took her high school class on a tour led by Purnell--15 years after the teacher had toured the courts as a fifth-grader.

The program’s 22 docents, all volunteers from the local legal guild, are usually booked four days a week throughout the nine-month school year. Summer tours can be arranged by calling the bar association at 653-5252.