Youngstown Daily Legal News

Programs like mock trials get students involved in civics at a young age

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Special to Legal News
Published: April 17, 2014

Through mock trials and simulated congressional hearings, the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education is putting a new spin on civics education and getting students as young as the fifth grade interested in the legal profession.

Assistant Ohio Attorney General Caitlyn Nestleroth said she first became interested in the law at a young age but found that there weren’t many law-related courses in her high school.

To remedy that, she joined her school’s OCLRE High School Mock Trial program.

“I was interested in being an attorney before joining my high school mock trail team,” she said in a recent press release. “But participating in that program cemented my desire to go to law school.”

And Nestleroth certainly wasn’t the only one in that situation.

OCLRE Director of Operations Kate Strickland said Ohio’s High School Mock Trial program is among the top-three largest of its kind in the country with about 3,500 students taking part each year throughout the state.

She said those students come from various socioeconomic backgrounds and participate in schools ranging form wealthy suburban institutions to public inner-city schools.

“We don’t have any limits on who can get involved and its really based on the interest of the students and teachers,” said Strickland.

With the mock trial program, students study the ins and outs of the legal system for months leading up to a mock trial competition.

At the competition, students are assigned roles as members of the jury, witnesses or attorneys and present their case before a panel of volunteer judges.

Although the program is most well known for its high school teams, Strickland said the middle school program, which culminates into more of a mock trial showcase than a competition, has really taken off.

In middle school, teachers blend civic education with literature by drawing the subject of the mock trial from a frequently read book.

This year, the program will be based on Lois Lowry’s “The Giver.”

“It’s a nice opportunity for a social studies teacher who might be teaching about the law and the justice system to work together with a literature teacher who’s maybe incorporating ‘The Giver’ in the classroom,” Strickland said.

While probably best known for the mock trial teams, OCLRE also offers other programs focusing on the constitution, social justice and public policy.

The We The People program functions much like the mock trials in that students spend months studying a text book and attending classes to learn about the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, the philosophical underpinnings of those documents and how they can be interpreted differently and shaped to fit modern debates.

At the end of their studying, the teams head to the Ohio Statehouse for a simulated congressional hearing where they debate and answer questions with a panel of actual legislators, legislative aides or judges.

Two other programs ask students to identify local issues to which they hope to draw attention and discuss ways to deal with those issues.

Strickland said although each of the programs focuses on a different area of civic education, they each aim to accomplish the same goal.

“All of our programs have culminating activities so that students get not only a full understanding of the process, but also get to practice and sharpen skills like critical thinking, public speaking, listening and understanding a counter argument,” she said.

Strickland said the group is still trying to capture data tracking how many of their student participants go on to seek a law degree, but anecdotal evidence shows that some are doing just that.

The group recently followed up with one young man who found success in the program with his high school team from Cincinnati.

It found that he received a full scholarship and earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University and was recently accepted into Harvard Law School.

“He said that his participation in the program made a huge difference because he felt ready on all fronts whether he would have pursued law or something else,” Strickland said, emphasizing that the skills learned during mock trial or the other programs are not law specific.

She said the aim of the programs is certainly to educate young people about the laws governing their nation and the legal system that keeps it running, but a large benefit is also increased critical thinking skills that can be applicable to any field of study.

Nestleroth agreed, noting that her skills have helped advance her career to the attorney general’s office but could have been useful in other areas as well.

“Regardless of their interests, any student can benefit from the public speaking and confidence-building aspects of the high school mock trial program,” Nestleroth said.

“The high school mock trial program taught me a number of invaluable skills that cannot be learned from a textbook. It taught me how to be an advocate for a position while still seeing the issue from both sides, which makes it easier to anticipate, and then counter, your opponent’s position. It also taught me professionalism and how to conduct myself with poise in a formal setting.”

The OCLRE is sponsored by the Ohio Supreme Court, the Office of the Ohio Attorney General, the Ohio State Bar Association and the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio Foundation.

Strickland said all of the sponsors are supportive and understand that the OCLRE aims to be nonpartisan in its teachings.

Teachers looking to get involved in the program undergo training and the OCLRE tries to make sure all political views are represented during those training conferences.

Strickland said the only time political leanings become evident is when a student chooses a politically oriented project and that, she said, is the student’s choice.

“We’re about making sure the students get a broad understanding of government and being involved, no matter what their individual beliefs may be,” she said.

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