GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL -- Educationally Speaking

Thu P. Pham joined his high school’s mock trial last year, to be mock

witness Devon Taylor, and this year took the plunge to be a mock

attorney.

He wrote an essay about his experience, and has allowed me to share

some of it with you.

*

o7 “The defense calls Devon Taylor, your honor.”

It was as if Satan were calling my name. I knew that it was my turn.

My heart started to beat like drums at a rock concert. For some

mysterious reason, I could not activate my brain to operate my feeble

body.

My hands and ankles seemed to be falling apart. As I looked around the

courtroom for help, my eyes were met by unsympathetic stares from the

parents of the other team.

My teammates, who had no idea what I was going through, urged me on

with admiring looks.

“There’s no turning back now,” I told myself. With some unknown

courage found deep within myself, I got up and walked gingerly to the

witness chair.

The room is full of silence and I have to concentrate intently in

hopes of giving my best performance. As I start answering the lawyer’s

questions, to my surprise, my hands are not f7 shaking at all, [and]

some invisible force also elevates my voice, making it crystal clear. It

o7 intrudes my brain, helping me brush off difficult questions from the

other team’s lawyer. When the round of questioning stopped, it took the

judge to order me off my witness chair, for I wanted to answer more tough

questions. I suddenly become afraid of no one.

Along with getting to meet so many amazingly nice people, the

invisible force that accompanied me in the witness chair stuck with me,

even to this day. It helps me give speeches in class with no problem and

gives me the courage to talk to my teachers and counselors. Heck, I even

joined the school play.

f7

*

Today at 5 p.m., the Superior Court in Santa Ana will be invaded for

the fourth round of this year’s high school mock trial competition. This

year, three of the four district schools have teams.

The Orange County Constitutional Rights Foundation is celebrating the

20th anniversary of Mock Trial Competition, where 44 Orange County high

schools are trying the murder and manslaughter case of People vs. Loren

Tanner. About 1,000 students, plus their coaches and teachers, will fill

the courtrooms to try their hand at life in the fast lane.

Each team supplies half of all of the necessary parts of a criminal

trial except for the judge. Local judges and attorney scorers volunteer

their evenings hearing one more case, which has a fictional defendant,

but seems like a matter of life and death to the students.

A journalism contest where students report on the courtroom battle has

been added to tonight’s competition. This is my fifth year coaching a

team, and I understand why athletic coaches are so keen on sending in the

plays. It is much easier to know what to do after years of experience

than to teach kids what to do during an unanticipated situation.

Luckily, mock trial doesn’t allow that kind of option. The kids must

do it all. On my team of 18 kids, almost half of them are immigrants.

Even though members of the team may have been living in this country for

only a few years, they each understand the order of a criminal trial, as

well as the evidence that is admissible, the reasons why we have

constitutional protections in the legal system and some of the terror

that lawyers go through.

This is not a way to make future lawyers; it’s a way to teach

Americans about their judicial system. Won’t you come watch the

excitement tonight?

GAY GEISER-SANDOVAL is a Costa Mesa resident. Her column runs

Tuesdays. She can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].