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Thursday, February 21, 2008
I object! Pursuant to Rule 4-B …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Across Gwinnett — and beyond — top students in our high schools have temporarily set aside their interests — soccer, yearbook, literary magazine, school pageants — to take sides for and against a student charged with selling marijuana to an undercover police officer.
Sandy Bryant, an honors student and science club president, is accused of selling pot to undercover officer Chris Ewing in exchange for Ewing finishing a chemistry report.
Are the charges true? Or was Bryant set up by Ewing because the officer was under pressure to make a quick arrest?
Students have spent months studying the statements and evidence and learning points of law. They’ve practiced arguments as they walk the halls between classes. This weekend they’ll enter a courtroom at the Gwinnett Justice and Administration Center to present their case.
When they do, it will be easy for observers to forget that Bryant and Ewing don’t exist and that the alleged crime never occurred. Participants in the Georgia Mock Trial Competition make fiction seem real.
Ten schools in Gwinnett will send teams to the regional mock trial competition Friday night and Saturday. (Yep, that’s right. High school basketball won’t be the only match-up in town.)
More than 100 kids will take part, and about 100 attorneys and judges volunteer their time as well. The winner of the mock trial regionals will proceed to the state finals March 12-16, also at Gwinnett’s government center in Lawrenceville.
I was invited to watch the Brookwood High School team practice Monday at Snellville City Hall. (President’s Day may have been a holiday for most high schoolers, but these students were toiling away.)
Gwinnett Juvenile Court Judge Phyllis Miller and attorneys Larry H. Tatum and Warren Auld (a Snellville City Council member) worked as coaches, volunteer positions they have filled for years.
Brookwood teacher Colleen Blankenship, who has supervised the team for so long that her 8-year-old twins have become experts, also delivered pointers. Parents and a team-building expert weighed in as well.
Just the sheer volume of memorization of text and legal jargon was enough to make my head spin. Not to mention the way the kids cloaked themselves in the personalities they developed for their characters. I was impressed. And I caught myself wondering, “Was Sandy guilty or not?”
Gwinnett has a strong tradition in the mock trial competition. Gwinnett’s region is the largest in the state, Miller said, and competition is high.
In recent years, Wesleyan School in Norcross and Brookwood have earned top honors at regionals. South Gwinnett High School was the state champion in 1995 and 1991 and won the national championship in 1995.
Other local high schools participating this year are Dacula, Duluth, Grayson, Meadowcreek, Norcross, Peachtree Ridge and Shiloh.
Students in mock trial don’t all join because they want to be attorneys.
“I’m interested in going into theatrics,” said Regan de Loggans, a junior. “The witness work helps in building characters.”
“I wanted to do an extracurricular activity that’s actually educational,” said Aireane Montgomery, a junior.
“Actually the last thing I ever wanted to do was be a lawyer,” said Maheen Shermohammed, a senior who’s thinking of majoring in neuroscience or social services. “ But I do love public speaking.”
Shermohammed is more into science, but her older brother was in Mock Trial, and somehow it became a family tradition, she said.
Others — such as senior Samantha Albert and freshman Can Tu Le —are interested in pursuing a career in law.
It can be challenging to fit the study and practice for Mock Trial around regular school studies, but the kids seem to manage.
“I find myself finding the most random times to practice,” Albert said. “Like, when changing classes, I’ll start saying my part.”
“One of the really cool things is about how diverse the group is,” Miller said. “We have black, white, Vietnamese, Muslim - just a very diverse group. ”
Miller says she has seen shrinking violets become articulate speakers through involvement in the mock trial. Tatum said he actually has learned a legal idea or two from the kids that he has been able to use in practice.
In recent weeks, the group has met five times a week, some on weekends. Often they meet at Miller’s house.
“I love to cook, so having a crowd is a plus,” Miller said. “And they eat like locusts.”
“After all of the time I spend in Juvenile Court, it’s great to come and work with these kids. … It’s such a positive program.”
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