Student Spotlight | The Cathedral High School Mock Trial Team Kicks off the Competition Season!

Last week, Cathedral High School’s Mock Trial team, captained by seniors Benedicte and Rosa, competed in its first meet of the year. Cathedral served as the prosecution on this year’s case, a criminal case involving arson. The meet took place in courtrooms at 100 Centre Street in Manhattan. Students sit at the lawyers’ tables and the witnesses are “sworn in” and sit in the witness chair in the courtroom. The set up is very formal: the students proceed as they would if they were truly arguing a criminal case! For this week’s competition, the CHS prosecution lawyers were Rosa, Zanaiya, and Camila, and the witnesses were Lucia, Shaila, and Amelia, with Angeles serving as timekeeper.

Although the judge in Cathedral High School’s competition last week selected the defense team (our opponents) as the winner, he spoke very favorably regarding the performance of each of the lawyers and witnesses from the Cathedral High School Mock Trial team. We are hopeful that our team will receive a high point total! At Cathedral High School’s next meet which will take place the last week of February, the team will argue for the defense on the same case. Cathedral High School’s Mock Trial team is blessed to have four volunteer moderators: three retired lawyers, Lorraine Langdon, Karen Lembo, and Leona Leo, and practicing litigator Alexa Kolod from Singer & Singer. We are so grateful for the dedication of these women to the young women of Cathedral!

There are approximately 80+ high schools in Manhattan competing against each other in the month of February, after which the top 32 schools compete in the playoffs.  Schools that win both first rounds are automatically in the playoffs, and the remaining schools are chosen by comparison of their total points. Points are given by the judge to each lawyer, witness, and to the team as a whole for professionalism. Each team has three lawyers and three witnesses, with different students taking the part as prosecution or defense. After each county in New York State has a winner, the county champions compete against each other in their section of the State. At the end of the season in May, the top four teams compete for a weekend in Albany. We look forward to an eventful rest of the Mock Trial competition season. Go Cathedral bears!

For more information about Mock Trial at Cathedral High School, please email development@cathedralhs.org.