Claymont Mock Trial Team Heads to State Competition

Mary Alice Reporting –

Only 28 school district mock trial teams are going to the state competition, among them will be Claymont.

Put together by the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education, the courtroom skit sees high schoolers playing the roles of prosecutor, defense lawyer, and witnesses. This year’s case, explained by Case Committee Co-Chair Benjamin Sandlin, relates to cousins being co-conspirators, who pled guilty, in an embezzlement scheme.

Participating school receive details of the case in October and that is when they get started going over the basics of a trial, says J.J. Ong, the Tuscarawas County Southern District Court Judge.

Then it comes down to learning a script says freshman Ashley Yang.

“We have our witness statement and then our lawyers they make questions that favor our side which is, for me, the defense, and then we pull parts, pull lines from the [witness] statement and we just have to memorize them for each question.”

The group heads to state competition, adds sophomore Cora Dotts, March 7th through the 9th, in Columbus.

“Our prosecution will go against a different [school districts] team’s defense and our teams defense will go against a different teams prosecution.”

Led by Ong and teacher Heather Dotts, the 10 person Claymont team also consists of Ellie Baker, Gemma Dotts, Malaika Douglass, Cambria Edwards, Zane Kuczirka, Neveah Perez, Selena Spellman, and Braxtyn Myers.