If you need a lawyer, help is not so far away! You can look at East Islip High School’s Mock Trial team.
Well, maybe they can’t represent you yet, but they’re close. For starters, Mock Trial is an act or imitation trial where schools compete against other schools in the county, state, and internationally, in a trial setting.
Each Mock Trial team consists of the roles of trial attorneys, pretrial motion attorneys, witnesses, clerks, and bailiffs. The end goal is to pursue the judges into your side of the case.
According to the New York State Bar Association, “the objective of Mock Trial is to teach students ethics, civility, and professionalism; further students’ understanding of the law, court procedures and the legal system; improve proficiency in basic life skills, such as listening, speaking, reading and reasoning; promote better communication and cooperation among the school community, teachers and students and members of the legal profession, and heighten appreciation for academic studies and stimulate interest in law-related careers.”
East Islip’s team begins preparing right when school starts in September. The early prep is for the competition in Chicago, the Empire World Championships. By the time the team the New York State case drops, they will have already had several competitions, giving them plenty of practice for the NYS season.
The team even goes above and beyond with Saturday practices.
“Out of all the days of practice we have, the Saturdays are the most effective,” Senior Olivia Stepanenko said. “We’re not drained from a whole school day and we have our attorney advisor, Mr. Mitchell, come in and assist us with the legal issues of our case.”
The students also use this time to get needed feedback on their objections and examinations from long-time advisor, Mrs. Lester.
Things are going so well for this group and people have taken notice – the team has a brand new courtroom that was constructed this year where they will host and compete in trials.
“From my freshman year, our team couldn’t get past finishing top eight in the county, but in just three years we won the Suffolk County Championship for the first time in 16 years & finished top eight in New York State.”
If this is something that interests you, maybe you can be the next witness called to the stand!