Armed with information regarding a hypothetical case, the Mock Trial Team studied the evidence and prepared arguments for both side of the given case.
For this season’s competition the case background was about a computer company that donated free computers to a school and allowed every student to receive one as long as they signed a contract. One student breached the contract in several ways, causing a security system to activate and take pictures using the computer’s webcam. Enraged, the student sued the company for invasion of privacy.
On Monday, Feb. 9, the Mock Trial Team competed against Timber Creek and Freedom high schools. The team played defense against Timber Creek and plaintiff against Freedom. Lottman did the opening statement against Timber Creek High School representing the defense, and direct and cross examined two witnesses in both trials.
“It was difficult because it was double the work and confusing to constantly switch between two different mindsets,” junior Sarah Lottman said. “Our openings were brilliant and much better than both opposing teams. And we also used every piece of evidence while Timber Creek only used one and Freedom did not use any at all.”
Even though the team was confident they succeeded, Timber Creek won and advanced to the state competition, leaving the team members in shock.
“I thought we were going to win and I thought we did. We had very talented members on our team that worked incredibly hard and I thought they all performed well. I left the courthouse confident we had won,” Mock Trial coach John Dempsey said.
Instead of focusing on the negatives of their loss, the team acknowledged their accomplishments of having a mastery of the material, strong responses to objections, and appraisal from the judges after their performance. However, after receiving their score sheets, they have decided to appeal their placement. The status of that appeal is pending.