Christy Malott, a Riverside High School ‘97 graduate, is running for Durham County district court.
When asked about her campaign goals, she says hopes to bring a “true trauma informed mentality to the district court system,” allowing for juvenile cases to be handled better.
She believes her experience prepares her uniquely for this task. As a student at Duke, she was a volunteer in the Guardian Ad Litem NC program. Guardian Ad Litem volunteers “serve abused and neglected children by advocating for their best interests in court,” according to the Guardian Ad Litem NC programs website.
In this role, she has learned a lot about the issues with juveniles in Durham.
Following her graduation from North Carolina Central University in 2005, she served with various firms before joining JusticeMatters in 2014. “Justice Matters is serving an important purpose and filling a gap in our ability to help individuals access legal services that otherwise would not be able to,” Malott says. This included helping caregivers get custody of children, keeping those children out of the foster system.
Malott cites Riverside as being a major part in shaping her career. When she attended Riverside High School from 1993 to 1997, it was a brand new school, and now coach Brian Strickland was a student, and while now social studies teacher Dave Norman was a coach. She cites then international relations teacher Kathie Davidson as one of her best educators during her time at Riverside. She also took language classes like French, and found inspiration in Latin.
“One word can be translated in multiple ways in different languages,” Malott said. “It’s an important thing for people to realize.”
After Riverside, Malott attended Duke University. Following a year of teaching at Hope Valley Elementary, she gained a law degree from North Carolina Central University.
Malott hopes, in her time in office, that she will also create a more just court. She additionally expressed that she wanted it to be known that on court she was “impartial and made the best decision that I could”.
