Caddo Magnet High School

Posted: Oct 13, 2010 9:31 PM
Updated: Oct 15, 2010 8:52 AM

Caddo Parish Magnet High School is sending their award-wining Mock Trial team to compete against the top 30 teams in the nation and world at the 2010 Empire City Invitational Mock Trail Competition in New York City on October 15 - 17, 2010. The team members are M.E. Breithaupt, Lauren Gedeon, Jay D. Meyers II, Sallie Singleton, Laura Thompson, Rachel Thomson, Joel Ubeda, and Shaterica Wilson. A unique component of this international competition is the stress placed on civility and collegial interaction between teams.

Every Monday and Wednesday after school, eight Caddo Magnet High students head downtown to the Caddo Parish Courthouse on Texas Street. No, they are not juvenile delinquents, but an award-winning team of aspiring lawyers and jurists. They enter the courthouse under the guidance of local attorneys, Steve Soileau and Kris Jackson, where they practice the craft of law. Students take turns posing as defense attorneys, prosecutors, and witnesses. They act out realistic civil and criminal cases that they've taken months to research and understand.

Murder is at the heart of the hypothetical case the students are working on now. A disagreement among three business partners about whether to take a buy-out offer for a jointly-held movie production company ended with one partner dead and one partner on trial for murder. With help from teachers Ginger Marks and Karen Soileau, the students use real law and actual trial procedures to argue for the defense, before switching sides and arguing the opposite for the prosecution. Role-playing as witnesses called to the stand to testify gives these students a taste of what it must feel like to be a person caught up in a real-life tragedy.

This activity is known as "Mock Trial." A mock trial is an imitation trial. High school students, college students, and law students from all over the world compete in separate circuits for a place as a top Mock Trial team. The high-school circuit holds regional, state, and national competitions each spring. The team from Caddo Magnet High has fielded a Mock Trial team for 13 out of the past 15 years, winning 12 regional competitions, 3 state championships, and 3 placements at the national level. In 2008, the team placed second in the Empire City Invitational Mock Trial Competition in New York City.

Because of their long winning track-record, the Caddo Magnet High Mock Trial team was invited to compete at the 2010 Empire City Invitational Mock Trial Competition sponsored by New York University. The top five teams in each state were invited to apply to this competition, along with award-winning international teams. Only 30 teams made the final cut.

After getting the news that their team should square off in New York City against teams from the East to the West Coast and from around the world, including places as far-flung as South Korea, Ireland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Canada, the Caddo Magnet High team began fund-raising. The team raised funds from local supporters, including several attorneys and law firms.

On October 15-17, 2010, the Shreveport team will enter the fifteen-story courthouse of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in downtown Brooklyn. There, each team will present its prosecution/plaintiff and defense sides of the case twice during four rounds. They will be judged and scored by practicing New York attorneys. Civility will be one of the main characteristics the judges look for in a team, as the Empire Invitational aims not only to train champions, but also to elevate the quality of the atmosphere in and outside of the courtroom.

Last year, Our Lady's College from Greenhills, Ireland, won the championship title. This year, the Caddo Magnet High team is hoping that hard work and the Southern courtesy and civility that grace our Louisiana culture will pay off in a win.