Congratulations to our eighth-grade Mock Trial students who had a successful competition at La Roche University!

Students were given different roles as attorneys, witnesses, and defendants in the fictional trial of Connie McCloud who allegedly stole jewelry from her family.

Several students earned awards in their trials.

Macee Ruot and Samantha Steele were named the best attorneys in their trial, and Ava Mazur and Mary Cacurak were named the best witnesses in their trial.

"It was our first time doing Mock Trial, and it was a great experience, but we really had to put a lot of work into it," Ava said.

Mary and Ava said the cross-examination was the most challenging part of the Mock Trial.

"The cross-examination is hard because of how many questions they fire at you whereas with the direct you pretty much have everything memorized," Mary said. "Nothing that was asked was too surprising because we worked well with the other groups. Having good lawyers really helped us. You need each other to do well."

On the opposite side of the experience, Macee enjoyed the cross-examination as a defense attorney.

"It was stressful in a fun way," Macee, who may pursue a career in the legal field, said. "The hardest part was finding the evidence. My favorite part was actually getting to do it after everything we worked on. The easiest part was doing the cross-exam. It felt really natural to me."

Collaborating in small groups for several weeks prepared them for the trial.

"Corresponding with other teams in our school made each of our cases stronger," Macee said. "We nitpicked each other's cases as much as we could, and we were constantly reading over other people's cases to try to find mistakes to help each other. With Emily (Brockway) as my partner, we worked together the best we ever have and pushed each other really as far as we could. It was fun."