The bell rings as students make their way into room 4127. They take a seat as they begin learning about the theories, the history of law, and how the legal system functions. 

Through class projects, mock trials, case studies, and guest speakers, social studies teacher Aaron Paul educates his students on how the legal system operates while obtaining a greater knowledge about it throughout this semester-long course. 

Before getting into teaching and becoming a Jag, Paul was a police officer for a little over 12 years. During his last four years of his service, he was a school resource officer at Heritage High School. 

“I really enjoy the interactions with this age group,” Paul said. 

At first, he started going into classrooms to do drug and alcohol recognitions.

“After a few years, I realized I had lived a dream for almost 12 years at that point as a police officer,” Paul said. “And I figured, why not try to have another dream in life and make it that much fun?”

Paul originally started out teaching in the Social Studies Department. He then slowly got involved in the Introduction to Law course, as he had a lot of background experience with a degree in criminal justice administration and his previous job as a police officer. Later on, Principal Andrew Abner approached Paul to ask him if he would be interested in an opportunity through concurrent enrollment and CTE with law enforcement. Paul accepted the offer and finalized his switch to the class.

“I loved teaching U.S. History, but this is in my wheelhouse. This is my degree. This is what I used to do,” Paul said. 

Paul has been able to witness how the criminal justice program has expanded and changed throughout the years and has been teaching here for seven years and counting.