Judge Merrick Garland, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
(AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland has tutored these D.C. schoolkids for years
Perry Stein
Vernell Garvin wasn’t surprised that President Barack Obama tapped Merrick Garland to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court. She already knew the judge was among the smartest people in the country.
Garland is, after all, really good at algebra. He’s even pretty strong at language arts.
“When I have problems with my math homework, he’ll help me with that,” said Vernell, a fifth grader at J.O. Wilson Elementary School in Northeast D.C. “He’s a very good person. He never does anything wrong. He deserves the job.”
Vernell Garvin and Jenifer Morales Garcia, students at J.O. Wilson Elementary School.
Garland has volunteered at this D.C. elementary school regularly for the past 18 years, and he has tutored Vernell for the past five years, arriving at the school every other Monday at 2:30 p.m. He started tutoring a second student last year, fifth-grader Jenifer Morales Garcia.
The school’s principal, Heidi Haggerty, said Garland prefers to build relationships with students, working closely with just one or two of them for many years. He once tutored a girl at J.O. Wilson throughout her time at the elementary school, then he continued working with her when she moved on to middle school.
The plan is for Garland to continue tutoring Vernell after she moves to middle school next year. But if he makes it through what promises to be an arduous Senate nomination process, it’s unclear if his schedule as a Supreme Court justice would allow him to continue.
“I think the message that he sends to his student is that you are valuable, you are important, you are worth it to me,” Haggerty said. “When he’s here, he’s like everyone else. He’s part of the community.”
Garland, 63, is from the Chicago suburbs, was valedictorian of his public high school and attended Harvard University for his undergraduate and law degrees. He was a prosecutor in the legendary D.C. case that landed Mayor Marion Barry in jail on drug charges and later oversaw the prosecution of the Oklahoma City bombings in 1995. He now serves as the chief judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The White House, which is handling media inquiries for Garland, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Obama’s announcement of Garland as a nominee, he praised Garland for his “civic mindedness, mentoring his clerks throughout their careers, urging them to use their legal training to serve their communities, setting his own example by tutoring a young student at Northeast D.C. elementary school each year for the past 18 years.”
Garland joins a list of Washington power players who have been involved in the local D.C. community, including the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), who was a regular at Brent Elementary School in Capitol Hill, where he often brought his dogs and read to the children in the library.
But Garland also gets his staff involved. He requires the lawyers who clerk for him to tutor at the school, telling them that if he can make time for public service, so can they, Haggerty said.
The school — a largely African-American elementary in the D.C. Public School system — has a partnership with the D.C. Court of Appeals, with about four groups of lawyers tutoring the students each month. But no volunteer is as consistent in meeting with the children as Garland, according to school staff.
Garland even invited one of the school’s teachers, Charlene Wilburn, to attend the president’s announcement of his nomination at the White House this week.
“At first I was so shocked, it didn’t make any sense. I felt so honored that he asked me to be there,” said Wilburn, who has worked with Garland at the school for the past decade. “As a teacher, you can really see someone who wants to help the kids, and they make that connection. He does everything he can to motivate the kids.”
Vernell and Jenifer, both 11, described Garland as smart, funny and someone who “looks important.” They say he cracks jokes, chats about his two daughters and always brings a deck of cards with him in case they finish their homework and have time to play.
He asks them about their aspirations, and encourages them to work hard to reach their goals. Jenifer wants to be an artist, and Vernell wants to be a dancer. Now, the two students say, they are both considering becoming lawyers.
"He tells us to never give up on our dreams,” Vernell said. “He has a lot of inspiration in his heart and mind.”
President Obama has nominated Merrick Garland to serve on the Supreme Court. Here is what you need to know about Garland. (Claritza Jimenez,Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) VIDEO: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/03/18/supreme-court-nominee-merrick-garland-has-tutored-these-d-c-schoolkids-for-years/
Perry Stein covers D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
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