Order in the court!
After months of preparation and meetings, Norwin’s two mock trial teams—the prosecution team and defense team—competed at the Westmoreland County Courthouse against two different schools. In a turn of events, Norwin’s prosecution team composed of lawyers Dominic Schultheis, Richard Zula, and Roman Ola, and witnesses Thomas Gaydos, Kieran Morrison, and Carter Kunicky ended up losing to Derry High School on Wednesday, February 5. Later on, after school on February 18, the defense team composed of lawyers Isabella DeFlitch, Lukas Dimitroff, and Keara Gregg and witnesses Grace Fleckenstein, Ana Kelley, and Harneet Singh won against Burrell High School. However, despite one team winning their round, Norwin will not move to the playoffs this year.
Mock Trial is a simulation-based club at the high school where students take on the roles of either lawyers or witnesses, to present their case to a judge and a panel of jury members. Early on in the year, students were given over 70 pages in information on the case—to prepare for their competition dates in February.
Since November, students have been getting together to discuss the case—from a basic understanding of the case to full-on run throughs of the opening and closing statements. Lawyers prepped for the competition by writing detailed opening and closing statements that outlined the facts of the case for the judges, while witnesses practiced getting into character and answering questions posed to them. Frequently, Mrs. Sturm—the mock trial advisor—would gather students to meet at Panera Bread North Huntingdon, to get food together and to prepare for the competition date.
While mock trial greatly helps students interested in law fields in the future, it also helps many students build their confidence in public speaking. Many of the lawyers in this year’s case spent hours of time reviewing professional objections, like “speculation” or “hearsay.”
“Mock trial helps students develop different skills including time management, public speaking, and debate,” said Mrs. Sturm, the Norwin mock trial club advisor. After reading the case, the students who are acting as lawyers need to start working with their witnesses to prepare their case. While the majority of the prep work goes on behind the scenes, the students are expected to perform while in court.”
When the case came out in the fall, Mrs. Sturm and the mock trial students did not hesitate to jump on the case and get started preparing their arguments. After analyzing the case several times together, the prosecution and defense team formed and started meeting together at Panera to work out issues. Additionally, Mrs. Sturm brought together two lawyers, Mr. Barr, and Mrs. DeFlitch, to help the students with the case.
“I begin reading the case and write down my own notes to help the students,” said Mrs. Sturm. “I then shared all the information with Mr. Barr and Mrs. DeFlitch who also help work with the students. I reached out to a friend of mine that works for the FBI and asked for their input on the case from both angles, which really helped the students see things a little differently. This year, we met on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 8:00 PM usually at Panera where we would work out different tissues and build questions. If the weather did not cooperate, we would meet via Zoom and use break out rooms to work.”
Shortly after practicing together at Panera a few times, the mock trial team had a run-through with members of the faculty, and later on with members of the administration.
“Leading up to the competition, I arranged two different run-throughs where the prosecution and defense went against each other and a team of jurors (usually teachers or principals) would determine which team did a better job,” said Mrs. Sturm. “The first run-through was held at the high school and was more laid back while the second run-through was held at the administration building and was a full-dress rehearsal. Mr. Aftanas sat in as the judge for the first and ADA (Assistant District Attorney) Theresa Miller-Sporrer acted as the judge for the second event. I set these up to put pressure on the students, which I think really helps them.”
Many students also competed in the mock trial event last year, the first year that Norwin was registered to compete. With a lot of experience under their belts already, these students were able to help newcomers fit their roles as witnesses and help design questions for first-year lawyers. Keara Gregg, a defense lawyer, was able to help her team beat Burrell High School with her knowledge from last year’s event.
“I am proudest of the progression we made, individually and as a group,” said Keara Gregg, a defense lawyer for the mock trial team. “I’ve worked with a lot of these people before, and seeing how we performed as a group made me content with the outcome. Last year we had just no idea what to expect, and this year I felt like we all really put in a lot more effort, and it did pay off.”
Furthermore, a lot of the students who participated in mock trial were interested in a law field in the future. The mock trial event itself and several practices with real-time lawyers helped Norwin students see if they could pursue law past high school.
“Law had always been an option I have considered as a career field, now I know a lot more about the court and how it functions,” said Dominic Schultheis, a prosecution lawyer for the Norwin mock trial team.
From memorizing opening and closing statements to better sway the jury for their argument and preparing for how to answer in a way that would benefit their side, both the lawyers and the witnesses put forth a case that was a force to be reckoned with. At the end of each “trial,” members of the opposing school district/team presented a best advocate award and a best witness award. For the prosecution team, Dominic Schultheis was awarded the best advocate award while Carter Kunicky was presented with the best witness award. On the other hand, for Norwin’s defense team, Lukas Dimitroff was presented the best advocate award and Harneet Singh received the best witness award.
“In the first round, the prosecution did a fantastic job presenting the evidence and objecting to the defense,” said Mrs. Sturm. “All of the witnesses remained in character and were able to help convince the jury of the guilt of the defense. While the jury did come back and announce the prosecution as the winner, the scoresheets said otherwise, and it was a major upset for many that participated. It was a great lesson to learn though as we didn’t know that you could technically win the case but not the competition. In the second round, the defense was also able to win their case in the courtroom and also had the scores to win the competition. Like the prosecution, the defense was able to present a strong case and convince the jury that the defendant was not guilty. Overall, I think that the students have come a long way in a short period of time. Since this is only Norwin’s second year doing mock trial, I am amazed at how much the team improved from last year to this year.”
Even though Norwin will not move on to compete in the next round, both teams prepared for hours on end together and proved that they could succeed in future law fields.
“I have seen so many students’ confidence levels grow tremendously by competing at mock trial and hope to continue to keep this event going at Norwin for many years to come,” said Mrs. Sturm.
