San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
MOCK TRIAL GIVES THEM REAL EXPERIENCE
More than 600 students from 32 schools compete
Ever since she was a child, Melissa Trujillo told her parents she was going to be a lawyer.
Now a senior at Kingchavez Community High School in downtown San Diego, Trujillo got to put that ambition to the test on Saturday as a member of her school team competing in the 14th annual San Diego County High School Mock Trial Competition. More than 600 students like Trujillo from 32 county high schools fielded teams that, over the course of several rounds of competition, assumed roles of lawyers, witnesses and other courtroom personnel in arguing a fictitious case.
This year’s scenario involved the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure, centering on whether a search during the course of a murder investigation was legal.
The competition is sponsored by the San Diego Superior Court, the San Diego County Bar Association and the Constitutional Rights Foundation. In addition to the students and teachers, who prepare for months ahead of the competition in their schools, the event also draws on local lawyers and judges who volunteer to help coach teams and score the competition.
Cathedral Catholic High
School took home the top prize, and Francis Parker School placed second.
This is the fifth year that King-chavez fielded a team, said Rosie Akiaten, a social studies teacher who coaches the team. During the months of preparation and practice, she said students gain a lot of skills — being a better public speaker, building vocabulary and gaining analytical skills among them. But those are not the most important skills they develop, she said.
“The biggest benefit I see them getting out of it is selfconfidence,” she said. Some students start out petrified of speaking in front of the class, but by the time of the finals on Saturday are capable of standing in a courtroom and articulating arguments.
Ginger Briseño said that the benefits are not just reserved for aspiring lawyers like her teammate Trujillo. “It teaches you overall skills that are going to help you in the future, no matter what you do,” said the 17-year-old senior at King-chavez.
This year five new schools participated in the competition. That’s a result of the court’s outreach efforts to county schools to get more students involved, said San Diego Superior Court Judge Laura Birkmeyer.
More than 50 lawyers, judges and court staffers donate time to help with the program, she said. They participate out of not only a desire to help students but a larger goal of increasing civics education in society, especially the role that the judicial branch plays in government.
“It’s so important everyone understand the role of the judiciary,” she said, and to show that decisions “are based on evidence and the law.”
New to the competition this year was an award named in honor of the late federal Magistrate Judge David Bartick, who died in
February 2018. A longtime defense lawyer, first as a county deputy public defender and then in his own firm, Bartick was widely admired for not just his legal skills but his courteous and respectful personality. The award was given to the team that demonstrated the best civility and sportsmanship during the competition, and this year went to The Bishop’s School.