March 8, 2006

Legal Eagles

Prospect High’s mock trial team wins 2006 county competition

Team will represent Santa Clara at mid-March state tournament

By Candy Richter
Staff Writer

For the first time in the school’s history of fielding a Mock Trial team, Prospect High School has secured the county title and will now advance to the state competition held March 17 – 19 in Southern California.

From left: Gary Yevelev, Debra Doyle, Marina Mankaryous, and Sindhoo Nackereen take a break during the Mock Trial.

In true Cinderella fashion, Prospect not only came away with the 2006 title, but edged out 2005 finalist and Mock Trial powerhouse Palo Alto High School in the process –a testament to the abilities of this group of young people.

Strong work ethic
“This is my fourth year advising the team,’ said faculty coach John Manning, “And I’d say by far, I’ve seen the strongest work ethics from this group of students than any other past [group]. Quite frankly, when I look at this team, I think it is the most well-balanced team in the history of Prospect High School.”

Coached by faculty members Manning and Stephen Smith, the majority of Prospect’s team are returning members – a phenomenon that speaks to the addictive quality of this Mock Trial team.

“It wasn’t that appealing to me at first, I just thought it would be something good for college,” said freshman and Mock Trial newcomer Atoosa Hashemi. “Then I came and I really listened and when we started really getting into the case, it was so unbelievable that Mock Trial has become my life. I live and I breathe and I eat Mock Trial. I literally dream Mock Trial, too. I can’t explain it.” Hashemi‘s role is as “Tobie Keetan” a witness for the defense.

Although the official rhetoric lists the of advantages of getting involved with high school Mock Trial Teams as ranging from developing interpersonal skills - such as critical thinking and public speaking - to offering students an opportunity to gain a greater understanding of our judicial system, the top priorities on Prospect’s list were fun and friendship.

More than teammates
“We’re not just teammates, we’re friends,” said Lena Wakayama. “We’re really close and we hang with each other a lot. It builds chemistry, especially between witnesses and lawyers because if you don’t have chemistry you’re not believable, so it really helps.” Wakayama is a junior and two-year Mock Trial veteran. This year her role was as expert witness for the defense, “Dr. Pat Choi.”

Developed by the Constitutional Rights Foundation in 1981, the Mock Trial competition represents a collaborative effort between the Santa Clara County of Education and the California Bar Association. Each year, CRF composes a criminal case that they feel would be of particular interest to students. Every team is given the same case, and each team works with both faculty coaches and attorney mentors. This year’s case was a Hollywood-style ‘whodunnit’ right out of CSI – and it brought up the legal issue of Fourth Amendment rights against illegal search and seizure.

Twenty-six high schools were represented in the Mock Trial competition, with all participants presenting their cases before a panel of real courtroom judges. The students each played a different role on the team – witness, prosecution, defense, even bailiff.

Teams were scored and eliminated in a series of four rounds; quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the finals, which were held on Feb. 21. Teams were seeded depending on their score from the prior round.

Lena Wakayama created this courtroom sketch of Gary Yevelev as Detective Green on the witness stand.

Acting abilities
Scoring was based not only on the student’s knowledge of the law, but also their ability to portray their parts with poise and in a convincing manner. Even though Prospect’s team has fun, attorney coach James Leonard is the first one to attest to their prowess in the courtroom.

“It’s almost like watching [these students] age 10 years at the flick of a switch,” said Leonard. “They go from being obvious high school students, joking around with each other, to being passable attorneys. Some of them, but for the fact that they look young, could probably walk in a court in San Jose and pass themselves off successfully as a defense attorney or prosecutor for an hour or so without being caught.”

While Leonard was quick to chuckle that this was definitely not his recommendation, he went on to point out that role-playing was one of the training methods used in preparing them for the courtroom. He said that the students watched films ranging from “A Few Good Men” to “My Cousin Vinny” and felt that some of them gained from those examples. They don’t walk up to the bench as a high school junior; they walk up as Tom Cruise, third or fourth year naval lawyer.

“If that’s what [they] need to do to get into the mindset to take a 10-minute barrage from Judge Edwards in Department 19 in the downtown courthouse, then so be it,” said Leonard

On to Riverside County
With the county match behind them, Prospect now must prepare for the state competition, which is held at the Riverside County Courthouse.

“At this point we figure we have a winning formula already in place, so it’s just a matter of polishing the student’s skills,” said Manning. “[We’re planning] in-house skirmishes, and we’re bringing in other attorney coaches and other judges to lend their eyes so that they can give us an outside perspective [of] where we need to cover a few weaknesses or highlight our strengths.”

Although 36 to 38 schools will be represented at the state match, Prospect considers their strongest competitors to be Orange County, San Bernardino County and San Mateo County.