Mock Trial Season Comes to an End

by Sara Rosenthal, SSLI '27

This year, the Mock Trial team competed in multiple rounds at the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola and made it to the quarter finals. After an exciting season, the team, unfortunately, lost their trial by only one point last week.

In the final round, Schechter competed against Floral Park’s high school. Sophomore Yoni Pedram, who was a witness for the defense team, expressed, “Last week was a close match. Floral Park’s witnesses were really good, so that made it tough for us,” but at the end of the day, both teams performed well and challenged one another, he said.

Junior Shir Levenson, who played defendant Sandy Townes, agreed: “I think we put on our best performance… [and] put up our best fight.” She continued, “... our witnesses and our lawyers were strong, but the other team just had some [great] arguments.”

Junior Micah Bidner, the lead defense attorney, explained that for his role, he “examined the defendants and cross-examined the plaintiff.” He felt that doing Mock Trial helped both his public speaking and critical thinking skills improve, which will both be crucial since he explained that he wants to be a lawyer in the future.

Despite their loss, the team worked hard to prepare for their trials. (SSLI Instagram)

Bidner also shared that Ms. DeLaire, the advisor for Mock Trial, was very helpful to the team because she “has a law degree” and is “able to give her professional expertise.”

Ms. DeLaire said, “Mock trial is a skill that takes years of practice, honestly, and we have a lot of students … who are very experienced by this time, and they did a great job this year. We also had a number of new students in tenth and eleventh grade … and they also did a phenomenal job, some of them on pretty short notice.”

Although the Mock Trial season is over, students are already looking ahead to next year’s competition. Pedram shared, “I want to improve how I respond to cross examination questions.”

Levenson stated, “For next year, I think I would just learn my character more and just keep going over the facts and what happened in the case, so that anything they throw at me … I know how I can defend myself.”

Bidner agreed, elaborating that the judge explained that he thought they all needed “to be more fluent in what [they were] saying, instead of reading it off of [their] papers.”

Ms. Delaire concluded, “I'm very, very proud of how our students did this year….  I'm really looking forward to seeing them return as well as seeing what they can do next year.”

Sara Rosenthal is a writer for Paw Print Now and has been published on the site since January 2024. Sara is currently a freshman at the Schechter School of Long Island and can be reached at the following email address: srosenthal27@schechterli.org.