Mock Trial

The Academy of Public Service Criminal Justice

Reese Reiley

“I just wanted us not to embarrass ourselves.” Said teacher Caleb Andrist when asked about his expectations for the club in competition.

“After the first trial, I was like, we’re good. Like, I have nothing to worry about. And I feel like the first trial we had, that was our weakest.”

At Fulton High School, COVID-19 hit hard.

The shutdown of the schools, and the world, also led to the shutdown of several programs and clubs. One of the many victims of that decommissioning was the Mock Trial club.

With the Criminal Justice program entering the Public Service SLC, Mr. Andrist saw the opportunity among his students to restart the Mock Trial program. “I was excited that there was finally a club like that back at Fulton.” Student Nesline Garcia said in an interview with the Falcon Quill.

Beginning in the fall of 2022, the first members of the club gathered to begin work for the program. Mock Trial, a national competition, provides a state-wide case that students study, analyze, and create an argument for. Teams must make a case for the defense and prosecution. Each team must have three attorneys for each side of the argument and four actors to represent the witnesses with statements in the case packet. The competitors go through a regional, a state level, and the national level. It is an incredibly competitive event, and students devote hours of their week to the club.

After the club members were finalized, work began as soon as students returned from Thanksgiving break. From reading the case packet in detail, to examining all the evidence, and learning the rules of court, students had their work cut out for them from the beginning. “You have to basically know about every witness.” From electing a president, assigning roles, and picking days of the week to practice, there was a lot to set up in not a lot of time. Mr. Andrist, realizing that the club would need outside help, reached out to the University of Tennessee’s College of Law. “With us being so close to UT, it was one of those things where I just kinda sent an email, requesting any help they may have, or if they would be even interested in pairing up with Fulton.” The request was met with an enthusiastic “yes” from the dean of the law school, and the dean of diversity outreach. Four law students in their second year came down one to two times a week to help prepare the case.

While they were at the club, the college students helped to teach the Mock Trial members about objections, legal jargon, and court procedures. In an interview with one of the law students, Theodora (Tedi) Ocken “You know, you don’t have classes on rules of evidence and stuff in undergrad. I knew that, so I wanted to help.” In her interview, she also mentioned how impressed everyone was with the progress of the students.They also helped to break down the laws used in the case, and how the club could concisely and clearly explain it to the jury.

The law students being at the school was a big hit. The club got the opportunity to meet the dean of UTK’s law school, Dean Brown. The presence of the law students in Fulton started a conversation about creating a program to reach out to all the high schools in the Knoxville area.

Through this program, the students could practice in law school classrooms before arguing in city courtrooms. *Insert Nesline quote about it here* The Mock Trial competition took place in February of this year, and students were at the Knoxville City Court from 7:30 am to around 4:30 pm. Although the Mock Trial club did not make it to the regional championships, they did receive an insider piece of information thanks to Mr. Andrist’s digging around. Not only did the students find out that they had managed to score 3rd place in the competition, but they also discovered that they had been three points off 2nd. The students in the club were overjoyed.

When asked, student Nesline Garcia described feeling “on top of the world.” The law students who had been assisting with the club felt similarly, the overall sentiment becoming a sense of pride and validation.

All the juniors who participated in the club committed to returning next year. As a part of the interview process, we asked participants what their advice would be for students who wanted to join the club next year. A common theme was that everyone has a place in Mock Trial, regardless of what you want to do with your career.

“Don’t be afraid of it,” said Mr. Andrist when asked about his advice for students. “I think that the other thing is too, is that just because you’re in Mock Trial doesn’t mean you have to be an attorney. The roles of the witnesses I feel are just as, if not more important than the roles of the attorneys themselves.” The Mock Trial club is enthusiastic about the competition next year and encourages any Fulton students who want to participate to be on the lookout for informational meetings in the beginning of the fall semester.

College of Law students become mentors, coaches to high school mock trial team

When a team from Knoxville’s Fulton High School earned high scores last month in a district-level high school mock trial competition, onlookers may not have realized the significance of that feat.

Only a few months earlier, the team of eight students knew nothing about the Tennessee Bar Association’s annual statewide competition that encourages high school students to develop lawyering skills.

They had never visited a courtroom or watched an attorney present a case at trial, and they had no idea they could learn lawyering skills through an opportunity offered by their school.

“When Mr. (Caleb) Andrist approached me and said we’re going to start this mock trial club, I was blown out of the water,” Fulton High School junior Adalind Reiley said. “This is something I have always wanted to do, but I didn’t think the school would have an interest.”

“I have been proven wrong,” she said.

Four University of Tennessee College of Law students were instrumental in preparing the high schoolers for the competition.

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