The classroom is filled with mock trial students discussing and planning for their regional competition. However, these students are not at the regular meeting place in Mr Schumann’s room. They are at South East Middle School.
“Walking in I was a little nervous because middle schoolers can be mean, but these middle schoolers seem very kind and shy and ready to listen,” Rachel Matel ‘25 said.
Matel is a co-head witness coach while other high school students rotate in and out to coach the younger students.
“Our job is to work with the witnesses. Help them develop a character, help them develop study strategies in order to be successful in the competition, and just sort of advise them,” Matel said.
For the last few years, mock trial has been led at City High by a few teachers and professional volunteers. Until now, mock trial has been a thing only for high schoolers in the area. But the dream for it to spread to younger students has been alive for a while.
“There has been talk the past few years about forming a mock trial team, but this is the first year we have really done it. Last year South East did have a unit in a class dedicated to mock trial, but that was the extent to which there was mock trial at SEMS before now,” Olivia Vande Berg ‘25 said.
Due to it being the first year of a mock trial team at South East, the coaches have decided to take things slow and prioritize making it a good experience for the younger students.
“I think our goals are just to make the students feel more confident with their abilities, either if they want to be an attorney or witness. Competition-wise, we want them to go to regionals. We want them to perform the best that they can and see where we go from there,” Amal Eltayib ‘26 said.
The coaches plan meetings beforehand every week, communicating with the other coaches about what to talk about at the next meeting. With such a short meeting period, coaches must make sure that the middle schoolers retain the information being taught to them.
“I try to emulate how meetings usually work at the high school level, and then break them down even more. I always want to readdress what was discussed the week prior, and then work on building an aspect of the case,” Vande Berg said.
The mock trial season has begun, but some City High students have been focusing on the kids at the middle school instead of themselves.
“It’s really helpful to start from a young age because it is a huge learning curve. I know my freshman year, they just jumped into objections. I was so lost. I didn’t even know how you use them or when you use them. I was so confused. So I think easing them into it from a young age allows them more time to develop and think about the ideas and the function of mock trial so they’re able to improve in that aspect,” Eltayib said.
Every Wednesday morning, the coaches go to South East Middle School from 7:45-8:30. The coaches give up their time and effort to encourage engagement in mock trial from a young age.
“It’s super fun that the kids are getting started so young because I know that for my freshman year, as soon as we went to regionals and got to experience it, I was just like, ‘this is such an amazing thing and I wish we started younger,’ and so I’m really happy that these kids get to have that and get to see regionals and state,” Eltayib said.
While the City High students wait for their problems to come out in December, they help South East students prepare for their regional competition just a few weeks away.
“We just guide them through the entirety of mock trial. We teach them about what attorneys are, what witnesses are, what a case is. We teach them a little bit about case materials, and then a little bit of the legal definitions, and it’s just kind of a start for them to learn about how mock trial functions. We’re not necessarily expecting them to be state champions, but we want to get them interested in mock trial and learn how it works,” Eltayib said.
Middle school mock trial does not just help the younger kids though. It has its benefits for City High students too.
“Mock trial is a very complicated thing. The legal language is a lot to learn, and it would be really nice if, as freshmen on our city high team, they had something going into it, instead of just completely from scratch,” Matel said.
While the coaches have to teach others about mock trial and guide them through the case, they also develop their own skills more.
“Teaching is really helpful and learning it yourself as well. When you have to explain it to someone, it really makes you think about how it really works. So you really have to be careful or more considerate with the way you view mock trial. I’ve learned a lot through explaining it to the kids, and I know everyone else has too,” Eltayib said.
Having high schoolers coach the younger kids not only makes the middle schoolers excited about high school mock trial in the future, but also gets the coaches excited due to the impact they are making.
“I really wanted to give back to the program that accepted me my sophomore year and built me into a much more rounded person,” Vande Berg said. “I want to be able to help these kids who have the dream of being an attorney to achieve that and to understand what that entails for them. I really just want to give back to the community and help these kids and the program grow.”
