To prepare, “lawyers” and “witnesses” have to steep themselves in more than 70 pages of relevant documents, exhibits and legal regulations.
Coach Gary Huggett, foreground, meets with some of the 17 students in the Mock Trial team at Pioneer Valley Peforming Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley in April. The team won the Massachusetts Mock Trial Championship last year. Another group of students is getting ready for this year's contest.SOUTH HADLEY – Two teen-age girls hurry down the halls of Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public High School wearing dark business suits. In a school where flamboyant dress is the norm, something is clearly up.
Two words: mock trial.
The girls at Performing Arts are dressed like lawyers. Their high school team is one of a dozen in Western Massachusetts preparing for the state-wide Mock Trial Program of the Massachusetts Bar Association.
The program, which officially begins Jan. 23, features a series of courtroom contests leading to a final smackdown at Faneuil Hall in Boston on March 23. “Skirmishes” are already under way.
The journey starts with a fictional case provided to participating students all over the state (about 1,500 this year) by the Bar’s Mock Trial committee.
This year the case involves teacher responsibility in a bullying situation. To prepare, “lawyers” and “witnesses” have to steep themselves in more than 70 pages of relevant documents, exhibits and legal regulations.
By the time a team makes it to the finals, it will have to have vanquished seven other teams. Trials take place in real district coTo prepare, “lawyers” and “witnesses” have to steep themselves in more than 70 pages of relevant documents, exhibits and legal regulations. urts and town halls, with 102 attorneys all over the state serving as volunteer “judges.”
Except for the preliminary trials, teams don’t know until the day of a trial whether they will be arguing for or against the accused. That’s why they have to know the case inside-out.
“They work very hard,” said Michael McNaught of Williamsburg, whose daughter Hannah has been on the Performing Arts team for two years.
Performing Arts has not only won the state competition twice, in 2005 and 2011, but is the only team from Western Massachusetts to prevail in Mock Trial’s 27-year history.
Other Western Massachusetts high schools vying for the championship this year will be Granby Junior-Senior High School, Westfield High School, Longmeadow High School, Southwick-Tolland Regional High School, Minnechaug Regional in Wilbraham, the Renaissance School Expeditionary School in Springfield, Hopkins Academy in Hadley, Pioneer Valley Regional in Northfield and, in the Berkshires, Pittsfield, Lenox, Waconah Regional and Lenox Memorial High Schools.
“From what I’ve seen,” said Jennifer Rosinski, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Bar Association, “teams that have the most poise and confidence do very well.
“Obviously they need to know the material and be aware of arguments on both sides, but there’s something to be said for selling it.”
Watching the kids in action requires special permission, and McNaught is one dad who got it. He, too, was blown away by the aplomb of the young participants.
“The presence they have in front of the judges, the way they carry themselves – Are you kidding me?” said McNaught.
The state mock trials are made possible by Brown Rudnick LLP and its Center for the Public Interest in Boston.