THE CNMI was not even in the roster of the best 30 participants in the national high school mock trial championship last year.
But this year, CNMI’s pride, Tinian High School, placed 24th out of the 44 best schools from various U.S. states and territories which participated in the mock trial championship held last May 13-19 in Minnesota.
Based on the championship result, CNMI was ahead of Hawaii and Guam.
Hawaii’s Kauai High School was in 30th place while Guam’s Academy of Our Lady of Guam was in 40th place.
Board of Education Chairman Herman T. Guerrero said he was proud of Tinian High School for giving honor to the CNMI.
“We have to pay compliments to the school, our teachers and the attorney coaches who participated in the competition. We did very well. We were even ahead of Guam and Hawaii,” Guerrero said in an interview yesterday.
He said Tinian High School competed with the best schools that came from big states whose primary language is English. “The CNMI has to be very honored. That speaks tremendously about Tinian High School and the commonwealth, because English is only our second language,” he added.
To further move to the top, Guerrero said the CNMI should work with the students better.
“We have to figure out what other schools in the higher roster did that we have not yet done. We have to know why did the judges pick them and place them on top. There are some priorities that need to be looked at to help improve our team,” he said.
The top five participants are Tennessee’s Family Christian Academy Homeschoolers, Pennsylvania’s Quigley Catholic High School, Colorado’s Glenwood Springs High School, California’s Lincoln High School and Wisconsin’s Rhinelander High School.
