This is the focus of the latest mock courtroom battle as the NMI Council for the Humanities holds the 2011 Junior High Mock Trial in the chamber of the U.S. District Court for the Northern Mariana Islands on May 7.
Humanities Council executive director Scott Russell told Variety, “The schools that have confirmed their participation are Hopwood Junior High School, Mount Carmel School, Whispering Palms, Saipan Community School, Eskuela de San Francisco de Borja and Rota Junior High School.”
Program officer Merced Ada said Tinian is not sending a team to the competition this year as it decided to concentrate on the high school competition. “But they said they will be back next year.”
Russell said the mock trial remains non-competitive, but the judge will recognize the exemplary individual performances.
“As in past years we are not having it competitive. Attorney Joe Camacho will recognize individual exemplary performances and he also does the critique. He will call the teams up and he’ll offer them constructive criticism where they might do better or where they struggled or where they have done well. He may read out the names of the exemplary students and we provide them with certificates within the next couple of days [after the mock trial.]”
Asked on the criteria for judging of the performances, Russell said, “It’s the judgment call of the judge.”
Russell also acknowledged the federal court for allowing them to use the court again for the annual program.
“We are very thankful that they have allowed us to use the venue over the years. The kids really like it as nothing beats like the real courtroom.”
According to Russell and Ada, they have yet to finalize the pairings as they assign one team for prosecution and one team for defense.
The pairings, Russell said, usually are done weeks in advance to give the students a chance to settle in — “to get into the character.”
He said there will be three attorneys and three witnesses with the latter to be examined by the three attorneys, either on the prosecution or defense side.
The schools get their own lawyer-coaches from time to time and with teacher-coaches who work with the team on a daily basis.
The Humanities Council, Russell said, assists in looking for lawyer-coaches in the event the school fails to get one.
The junior high school teams are using the same case — Sage Palacios v. Oscar A. Romero Public High School; Quinn O’Houlihan, principal — discussed in the competitive mock trial.
The materials are available at www.nmihumanitiescouncil.org.
The fictitious case revolves around a student named Sage Palacios who is barred by school principal Dr. Quinn O’Houlihan from participating in the campus elections on account of his espousal of the teaching of intelligent design in all schools. The principal believes that this would entangle the school in the constitutional prohibition against sponsored establishment of religion.
The fictitious case is an attempt at resolving an issue concerning one that upholds the “Establishment Clause” and the “Free Exercise Clause” of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”
Moreover, the student who files a lawsuit in this fictitious case, Sage Palacios, seeks to enter a temporary restraining order prohibiting the principal and school from holding student elections without his participation; order trial at which time evidence could be presented on the issue; enter a permanent injunction prohibiting the school and the principal from preventing Palacios’ participation in the student elections with his religious campaign; and expunge from his school record a reprimand issued for an alleged policy violation.
The court granted the TRO to suspend election until conclusion of the full trial on the merits.
According the Humanities Council website, the junior mock trial program is an annual program designed to help students develop useful knowledge about the law and courtroom procedures in an enjoyable and non-competitive format. The program, as stated in the website, also prepares students for the competitive mock trial program at the high school level.
