Mock Trial

I took my 15-year old and three of her teammates to the courthouse for a round of mock-trial competition.

Using a set of facts, high-schoolers play all the roles in a real criminal trial, from prosecutor to bailiff. They argue constitutional law, give opening and closing statements, testify, and examine witnesses. These kids work as hard on this as high school athletes, and they do almost as well as, and sometimes better than, folks with bar cards.

My daughter played the accused, and got kudos from all sides. It's the only forum in which I'd like to see her as a defendant. The con law argument was done by an exchange student from Lisbon. Extraordinary that a person here for three months, from a country with a very different legal system, could make a good constitutional law argument in English.

These are bright, motivated, poised kids. If all high-schoolers were like these, I'd be a teacher in a Mexican minute.

Oh--and, she didn't do it.