LOCAL SCENE

Prospect High School Wins Countywide Mock Trial

Campbell Union High School District’s Prospect High School’s prosecution team defeated Fremont Union High School District’s Lynbrook High School’s defense team in the championship round of the Santa Clara County High School Mock Trial Tournament on Feb. 15.

The winning team will advance to the state championship in March.

The Santa Clara County Office of Education in partnership with the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Santa Clara County Superior Court, sponsors the Santa Clara County High School Mock Trial Tournament which gives students an authentic trial experience. Each year, high school teams study a hypothetical case that the Constitutional Rights Foundation provides. A team of 18 students prepares to defend or prosecute the case and fulfill the roles of pretrial attorneys, prosecutors, defense attorneys, witnesses and court staff.

“Thank you to the Santa Clara County Bar Association, County Superior Court, attorney coaches, and staff for their hard work in coordinating this meaningful event for students,” said Dr. Mary Ann Dewan, County Superintendent of Schools. “I would also like to congratulate Prospect High School on their win. The skills students develop during this tournament will serve them in their future careers and academics.”

After multiple years of virtual tournaments due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 20 public and private high schools returned to compete in-person at the Santa Clara County Superior Court’s Old Courthouse in downtown San Jose. The tournament was presided over by sitting superior court judges and was scored by hundreds of local attorneys.

In this year’s hypothetical case, the prosecution charged the defendant with battery and robbery when stealing a rival actor’s Shakespearean ring aboard a cruise ship. The prospection argued this was a case about the envy of the understudy. The defense countered that it was an accident, not an attack.

Prospect High School’s team will now advance to the state championship in Los Angeles, hosted by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, on March 17-19.

Additional recognitions included Prospect High School’s Hyoum Lee, winner of the 2023 Santa Clara County Courtroom Artist Contest, and recent retirees Judge Jim Towery and Assistant United States Attorney Jim Scharf who received the Johnny Gogo Award for their decades of service to the Santa Clara County Mock Trial Program.

For information about the Mock Trial Competition and participating schools, visit sccoe.org/plisd/history/ Pages/Mock-Trial.aspx.

County Breaks Ground On Mental Health Care Facility For Young People

Santa Clara County broke ground Feb. 22 on a first-of-its-kind behavioral health center for children and adolescents in San Jose.

The new mental health center, which will be linked to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, will operate inpatient and outpatient medical and psychiatric care to children and adolescents in need of behavioral healthcare, as well as have a separate floor for adults.

The center fills an important gap in behavioral health care for youth in the county. Access to child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric is limited in Santa Clara County.

Children and adolescents who need short-term psychiatric hospitalization have been sent to facilities as far away as Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano and even Sacramento counties, taking them far away from the support of family, caregivers and their own behavioral care team.

“Separating these kids from their families at one of the toughest times in their lives, that's just hell on them. I'm worried, frankly, that the specter of long-distance treatment currently deters kids and families from seeking the help they need in the first place,” said Supervisor Joe Simitian, who serves as chair of the county Board of Supervisors’ Health and Hospital Committee and who first proposed the project in June 2015.

When the Board of Supervisors approved construction on the new center in 2017, 689 Santa Clara County youth were admitted to out-of-area psychiatric hospitals, where the average stay spanned about six days far from their homes and support systems.

County leaders said the future facility will be unique because it will house multiple programs under one roof and provide a centralized location to support the needs of anyone who relies on the county services.

The center will consolidate and integrate behavioral health services that are currently provided elsewhere throughout the Valley Medical Center campus into the new facility with 35 inpatient beds, emergency psychiatric services and mental health urgent care for children and adolescents. It will also have 42 adult inpatient psychiatric beds and services in a separate, secured part of the building.

The 207,000-square-foot facility will be linked by skyway to Valley Medical Center's Emergency Department to allow patients who have co-occurring medical issues to be treated on-site.

The current construction schedule calls for the project to be completed and open to patients in late 2025.

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LOCALS NAMED TO DEAN'S LIST AT EMERSON COLLEGE

Local students earned Dean's List honors for Emerson College's Fall 2022 semester.

They are:

• Tatum Jenkins of Los Gatos, majoring in Writing, Lit and Publishing, is a member of the Class of 2023.

• Isaiah Vivero of Monte Sereno, majoring in Media Arts Production, is a member of the Class of 2023.

• Brandon Krish of Monte Sereno, majoring in Media Arts Production, is a member of the Class of 2025.

The requirement to make the Dean's List is a grade point average of 3.7 or higher for that semester.

Emerson College is based in Boston, Mass.