Sept. 16, 2016: Christine is asking students to research a judo competitor from the 1970s. The subject is actually the instructor when she was young. She has asked students to find material in a variety of formats, including a book, which has been very hard. Google Books has an old issue of Black Belt with a decent article in it, but I've not found Penick indexed in any books in WorldCat or EBSCOhost eBooks. She's not in Biography in Context or our print reference collection, even the martial arts encyclopedia. She has asked students to write a 4-page paper! I've suggested students explain their difficulties to her and see what she suggests.Kathleen has reached out via email but not heard back. Ellen
Sept. 22, 2016: Second assignment notes from Susan.
For next Monday, students are assigned to explain “California Stand Your Ground Law” and “Self-defense as Legal Defense under California Criminal Law.”
For the first part of the assignment, the stand your ground law, I found a good article in GVRL. “Castle Doctrine and Stand Your Ground Laws” from the Gale Encyclopedia of Everyday Law that lists the laws state by state.
There is a sketchy pdf that you can find with the exact wording of the second phrase above—it’s possible that’s what the instructor is using. http://www.downloads.imune.net/medicalbooks/Imune%20teaches%20Women%20to%20defend%20them%20selves%20here%20is%20the%20Legal%20Defense.pdf Unfortunately, this document opines that California’s self-defense laws are “stand your ground laws.” This is not strictly true, especially when you think of the George Zimmerman type of stand your ground law (aka “shoot first” law).
Page 3 of this document http://scholarship.law.berkeley.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1126&context=bglj has a Brief Review of Self-Defense Law of California which I found helpful. It also directed me to CA Penal Code 197: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=197.
I am concerned that this assignment is requiring students to interpret the law. They should know that there is a lot of stuff on the web that incorrectly interprets the law, and I’d stick to the GVRL article and the Penal Code (or the Berkeley Journal of Gender, Law and Justice article).
Anyway, not sure what she wants (other than another 4-page paper), but I hope these links will save you some time.
Susan
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/07/22/5-things-to-know-about-stand-your-ground-in-california/