Senior Mock Trial Gold Team takes first at Regionals, eighth at State

Shana Feltham
March 19, 2013

The senior Mock Trial Team (Gold) won first place at Regionals on March 2, and advanced to State where they placed eighth. Along with the seniors, the junior team also competed at Regionals and placed seventh.

“We are so proud to place first and make it to State,” Renee Layoun, junior, said.

The teams competed at the Clackamas County Courthouse for Regionals participating in three rounds. The first two were against Lake Oswego, and the third against Lakeridge. The Gold Team consists of Adam Lee, Allisen Haggard, Mary Earp, Lacey Gunther, Megan Mueller, Oliver Muggli, Emily Art, seniors, and Layoun.

According to Layoun, the Gold Team has become a very strong team with a passion for law pushing them toward success.

“This year, we have grown so much as a team. After Empire [an international competition in New York] in the fall, we are so much closer and definitely act as a team,” Layoun said.

For Regionals and State, the cases chosen for teams to present are based off of real life cases. The Gold Team was given a case about an honor society’s pledge master charged with second degree manslaughter and hazing. This is due to a pledge death during one of the games, Water Jeopardy, that the society had played.

The teams prepared to represent both sides, prosecution and defense.

For Regionals, each team received its case in the middle of December and prepared and practiced with it up until the competition. The teams practiced twice a week and a group of attorneys and coach, consisting of Matt Kellogg, law teacher and founder of the Mock Trial team, help the two teams create drafts and become better witnesses and lawyers.

Two weeks before a competition, practices occur four days a week, and one week before the trial, the teams do constant re-runs of the case that they are going to argue.

“For upcoming competitions we practice a lot. We go over our materiel many times with different teams,” Rachel Dawson, sophomore from the junior team, said.

Both teams consist of eight people, with four for prosecution and four for defense.

“Since there are four of us on prosecution and four of us on defense, we each prepare either an opening statement, direct examinations, cross examinations, or closing argument,” Layoun said. “ We are also each other’s witnesses. We pretty much model lawyers presenting a case in front of a jury.”

Donate to wlhsNOW

$135

$500

Contributed

Our Goal

Your donation will support the student journalists of West Linn High School. Your contribution will allow us to continue to produce quality content by purchasing equipment, software, and continuing to host our website on School Newspapers Online (SNO).

About the Contributor

Shana Feltham, Reporter

Aspiring young scientist, Shana Feltham, sophomore, hopes to one day join the Peace Corps and make the world a more positive place for humanity.

“I want to feel like I have a say in the world,” Feltham said. Feltham lives her life with one idea in her mind: make the world a more peaceful place.

Feltham was adopted from China at the age of one.

“I feel extremely lucky that I got adopted into such an amazing family,” Feltham said. “I am very thankful and grateful for my adopted family,”. She is inspired by the idea of loving life, living every day to its fullest and taking advantage of every opportunity possible.

“I love helping charities that contribute to making people happy,“ Feltham said.

“One day I hope to travel to an African country with the Peace Corps. I would love to get the opportunity to help people when I am older.”

Feltham is worried about many conflicts in the world but her top concerns are for global warming, KONY 2012 and body image issues in young ladies.

“I want girls to feel like they always have someone to talk to,” Feltham said. “No one deserves to feel alone or like they have nobody to talk to about their issues.”

Feltham uses her bubbly personality to aid in making the world a more positive place.

“I am terrified of spiders. I can not and will not be within a mile of a spider. I will die! I would much rather be in a climate zone where I’m sweating buckets, than be in the rain,” Feltham said.

As well as making the world a better place, she loves to bake. Baking has been one of Feltham’s passions since she was five years old. One of her earliest memories is baking her first batch chocolate chip cookies with her mother when she was five.

“When I first baked cookies with my mom, I remember that my batch tasted awful! I pretended they were good and ate them anyways because I was proud I actually baked something,”. As much as she loves baking, she hopes to pursue a career with her science discoveries.

“I hope to attend Stanford University in sunny California,” Feltham said she is competing for the second year in a row in ISEF. She is doing a continuation of last years project concerning the rate of which bacteria die while under a laser.

“Our project made it to the international level last year, and we went to Pittsburgh. It was a great experience and I hope to return again this year,” said Feltham.

Feltham has love for science , a passion for baking and one goal in mind — help the world be a better place for mankind. She motivated girl who hopes to someday make a positive difference in the world by joining the Peace Corps.