The following students have achieved Honors at the Old Rochester Regional High School for the second term.

            Highest Honors: Grade 9: Erin Costa, Mason DaSilva, Hannah Guard, Tyler Mourao, Brooke Santos, Maxxon Wolski, Matthew Wyman; Grade 10: Elizabeth Hathaway, Jane Kassabian, Isabella King, Alexandra Melloni, Drew Robert, Evan Roznoy, Rachel Scheub, Paige Watterson; Grade 11: Sierra Ennis, Mya Lunn, Louisa Truss; Grade 12: John Hewitt, Kella Mendes, Kelly Merlo, Renae Reints, Leah Thomas, Michael Wyman.

            High Honors: Grade 9: Madison Barber, Caleb Jagoda, William Kiernan, Molly Lanagan, Hannah Nadeau, Charlotte Rathborne, Kurt Thompson; Grade 10: Colleen Beatriz, Catherine Feldkamp, Matthew Fortin, Serena Jaskolka, Meghan Johnson, Mallory Kiernan, Samantha Kirkham, Lauren Ovian; Grade 11: Jennifer Aguiar, Andrea Harris, Michael Kassabian, Julia Nojeim, Ashley Pacheco, Austin Salkind; Grade 12: Nicole Enos, Elizabeth Machado, Kaitlyn Sethares.

            Honors: Grade 9: Julia Barrett, Andrew Bichsel, Alexander Bilodeau, Morgan Bliss, Douglas Breault, Jacob Cafarella, Madison Cristaldi, Patrick Cummings, Griffin Dunn, Colin Flynn, Cheyanne Frias, Colleen Garcia, Joshua Garcia, Emma Gelson, James Goulart, Nathan Hall, Jonathan Harris, Celeste Hartley, Emily Hiller, William Hopkins, Aubrie Isabelle, Connor Kelley, Jonathan Kvilhaug, Olivia Labbe, Diana LaRock, Joshua Lerman, Victoria MacLean, Jordan McArdle, Matthew Merlo, Mackenna Milton, Camryn Morais, Madeline Morris, Alexandra Nicolosi, Riley Nordahl, Daniela Ochoa, Alison Pachico, Krishna Patel, Sahil Raje, Andrew Riggi, Mary Roussell, Timothy Schroeder, Riley Shaughnessy, Ryson Smith, Jacob Spevack, Noah Tavares, Ali Taylor, Lauren Valente, Sienna Wurl, Emily Ziino; Grade 10: Elexus Afonso, Emil Assing, Samantha Babineau, Rikard Bodin, Patrick Briand, Jacob Chavier, Lauren Gaspar, Brianna Grignetti, Serena Iacovelli, Emily Josephson, William Lynch Jr., Hayli Marshall, Nicole Mattson, Madeline Meyer, Lucy Milde, Victor Morrison, Jeffrey Murdock, Michaelah Nunes, Jacob Plante, Alexandria Powers, Hannah Rose, Haily Saccone, Evan Santos, Alex Tavares, Teagan Walsh, Jared Wheeler, Margaret Wiggin; Grade 11: Michael Amato, Kasey Baltz, Ryan Beatty, Morgan Browning, Brittany Brzezinski, Stephen Burke, Madeline Cafarella, Victoria Caton, Mikayla Demanche, Jaclyn Dyson, Nicole Gifford, Evan Gillis, Kaleigh Goulart, Chrystina Hai, Gerald Lanagan Jr., James Leidhold, Hannah Lerman, Shannon Lynch, Samantha Malatesta, Julianne Mariner, Laura McCoy, Victoria Medeiros, Heather Nadeau, Sarah Robertson, Brittney Santos, Christina Sebastiao, Jillian Sethares, Kyle Sherman, Riley Sherman, Sydney Swoish, Vincent Tepe, Courtney Tranfaglia, Bailey Truesdale, Cassandra Vance, Angela Weigel; Grade 12: Emily Audet, Evan Augustine, Samantha Barrett, Jessica Belliveau, Connor Blagden, Douglas Blais, Michaela Bouvette, Rachel Brown, Amanda Carreiro, Bridget Costa, Morgan DaSilva, Christopher Demers, Mikala Downey, Kylie Fitzgerald, Talon Gomes, Anna Gray-Jenney, Ian Hibbert, Frank Hopkins, Brittany Hotte, Emily Hyde, Rebecca Koerner, Casey Mackenzie, Elizabeth MacLellan, Natalie Martin, Shawn McCombe, Rebecca Myers, Brianna Perry, Richard Phillips, Nancy Pope, Brittany Prokop, Ruhi Raje, Paige Santos, Keren Satkin, Hallie Talty, Zachery Tilden, Hannah Vieira.

Old Rochester Regional High School’s mock trial club is only two years old, but in that time the club has grown into a committed and successful group of students. This year, ORR’s mock trial club won all three trials in the preliminary round.

“To sweep all three victories for our second year is pretty impressive,” said Michael Linane, co-advisor with Geoffrey White for mock trial club.

Mock trial is an unsung program throughout the nation. Here in Massachusetts, the program is organized by the Massachusetts Bar Association. Each year, the Bar Association creates a unique court case. The mock trial clubs throughout the state are given this case, complete with evidence and affidavits.

“We started meeting in September, but we didn’t get the case packet – the case material – until the end of October,” recalled Linane.

This gave the club roughly two months to prepare for their first trial. Meeting once a week, the club participants had to learn the case and decide which roles would best fit each student.

“For a witness, all they have to do is memorize their lines and respond to questions,” said Linane, “For the lawyers, they have to be able to give and to respond to objections by opposing councils. It requires a little more thinking on their feet.”

With nearly twenty students in the club, however, not every student could have a speaking roll. For each trial, the club is allowed just six lawyers and three witnesses.

“Some people are a part of the club just to help out, without any speaking roles at all. We’ve deemed them paralegals,” laughed Linane, “They’ve been a tremendous help as well.”

Towards the end of January, the preliminary trial rounds began. In these three rounds, mock trial clubs meet at a local courthouse. There, they act as either the plaintiff or defense. The trial is overseen by a volunteer lawyer serving as a mock judge. The judge decides which side won the case, and he or she also distributes points to each school’s club. Each student lawyer has the potential to earn ten points for their club.

“We have to go through the opening, the direct examinations of the three witnesses, the cross-examinations of their three witnesses, and then a closing argument,” said Linane. Student lawyers earn points for each of those components.

This year, the case created by the Massachusetts Bar Association is a civil case. In the imaginary case, a pilot died while performing a stunt when the plane’s wing became detached. The pilot’s son is suing the aircraft company, claiming they breached a warranty of marketability and the plane was not fit for use by stunt pilots. He holds evidence that the plane did not allow for a margin of error. The aircraft company, the defense, argues that the pilot was inexperienced and the accident was due to pilot error.

In their first trial at the Fall River Courthouse, ORR’s mock trial club acted as the defense. In their last two preliminary trials, the students acted on behalf of the plaintiff. In all three trials, ORR’s club earned the most points, making them victorious. This is a huge improvement from last year, when ORR’s mock trial club won only one of their trials.

Still, they are thankful to have been able to get the club started in the first place. Bus fares to and from the courthouse can be costly, and the mock trial team would not have been able to proceed without the generous sponsorship of Schaefer & Kunz, P.C. and Donald Fleming, two law firms in the area.

Now, with the preliminary rounds over, the mock trial club is waiting to hear if there will be a need for a tie-breaker. If not, ORR’s club will move onto regionals in March. The Massachusetts Bar Association organizes a bracket system each year, in which mock trial clubs in the sixteen regions compete to be the state champion. From there, the state champion can move on to the national level. This would be a great accomplishment for ORR’s mock trial club.

“[The students] have been very, very impressive,” said Linane proudly.

As they design their questions, direct their arguments, and respond to objections, the students are getting a very realistic courtroom experience. Some students involved in the club have expressed interest in a law career as a result of their mock trial undertakings.

Seeing this, Linane noted the benefits of the club. He said, “It’s a good opportunity for people to see if they would be interested in that. When you’re in high school, how do you know if you want to become a lawyer or not? … I think [mock trial] might help people make choices.”

By Renae Reints