Nicholas McKenna
Youth Justice Education Clinic
Motivated by his own teaching experiences during the pandemic, Nicholas was eager to help young people and their families to navigate the education system as a legal advocate. As a clinical law student in the Youth Justice Education Clinic, Nicholas learned about special education and disability rights law, as well as the legal tools available to advocate for students and families caught in the school-prison nexus. Nicholas represented a client who struggled for his entire life with ADHD and was recently diagnosed with autism. This client’s unaddressed disabilities interfered with his access to education, which resulted in his disengagement from school and consequent incarceration, after which he was pushed out of school for a significant period of time, jeopardizing his Section 8 housing. Nicholas committed significant time and energy to building rapport with this client and his mother: Nicholas consistently showed up to court appearances, visited our client wherever he was currently located, updated his client and his mother frequently and with endless patience, and empathized deeply with their struggles. Thanks to Nicholas’ diligence and consistent advocacy, the client and his mother trusted him. Ultimately, Nicholas’ hard work resulted in the school’s agreement to acknowledge our client’s autism and provide autism-specific supports that made education accessible to him.