Legal Studies students at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Senior High School will have a brand-new, state of the art courtroom when they return in August.
The courtroom that also serves as a classroom has a judge’s bench, jury box, audience gallery and tables for litigators to present their arguments.
There are also two deliberation rooms, a camera to livestream the action and a digital projector for the aspiring lawyers to use.
“Today we reveal a courtroom, but this courtroom is more than a physical space,” said Miami-Dade Public Schools Board Member Roberto Alonso. “It’s a symbol of what’s possible when vision meets action.”
Funding came from $2.3 million in general obligation bond proceeds that will also pay for renovation of HML’s planetarium. Part of its new SpaceHUB aerospace mega-magnet program, it is scheduled to open in the fall, the district said.
The courtroom is named for Class of 1992 Valedictorian Ricardo “Rick” A. Gonzalez, an attorney who died in 2022. Gonzalez was on the 1991 and 1992 Mock Trial teams; the 1992 Trojans were national champions. His parents Ricardo Gonzalez and Marta Gonzalez attended the courtroom dedication, as did friends, teachers, team coaches and alumni.
“If he would have been alive today, this would have been the climax of his career,” Ricardo Gonzalez said. The younger Gonzalez earned a brown belt in judo, Alonso said while reading from a proclamation.
Gonzalez was educated at Georgetown University. His legal career included working at the Bureau of Consumer Protection in Washington, D.C. and with the late Attorney General Janet Reno. In the private sector in Miami, he worked as a litigator in securities law at Greenberg Traurig and later at Berger Singerman, until his death in 2022.
Graduating senior Maurits Acosta led the charge to get the classroom built for legal studies students and banged the gavel to officially open it on May 30.
Mock Trial and Model United Nations teams will be able to prepare there; Trojan Model United Nations teams have aced county and national competitions in recent years.
Previously, students used a mobile cart and podium that was used by other schools in the district.
“Our students had the vision that they wanted, [that] they deserved and they had earned a courtroom,” Alonso said.
Also attending the dedication were Town of Miami Lakes Mayor Josh Dieguez, Councilman Alex Sanchez and City of Hialeah Council members Melinda De La Vega and Juan Junco.