Danville students take over Montour County courthouse for 'Trial of Gold E. Locks'

Anna Wiest, The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
·1 min read

May 24—DANVILLE — The Montour County courthouse was taken over by fairytale characters Friday as students from Saint Cyril Preschool and Kindergarten performed the "Trial of Gold E. Locks."

The students spent months preparing for the play, the script written by their teacher, Betsy Finn.

Finn said she spent a lot of time reading fairytales as a kindergarten teacher and realized many of them are kind of disturbing.

"I went online and found there were lots of trials, but they weren't appropriate for this age," Finn said.

Finn went on to write a script for her students who had a lot of fun learning about the courtroom in the process of preparing for the performance, she said.

"They had a lot of fun and got really into their roles," Finn said.

Shawn Devitt, who played both Mr. Bear and the Big Bad Wolf, said he had fun scaring everyone as the villain of the story.

Michael DeCoskey played both the narrator and the jury foreman. Finn said DeCoskey was quick to learn both of his parts and did so in just two days.

Prior to their performance, the students heard from several Montour County officials including District Attorney Angela Mattis, Public Defender Laurie Pickle, Sheriff William McKenna and Judge Gary Norton.

McKenna said he enjoyed having the students in the courtroom.

"It's always great having them here and seeing how the court system works," he said. "It's always fun for us as well."

It was a big day for students as they left the courthouse and headed to celebrate learning their 50 states and capitals with state-shaped cookies made by their parents, Finn said.