Ninth grade honors students go on trial

John Blough’s honors classes created a mock trial associated with their study of And Then There Were None during the week of May 14 to 18 in his classroom.

Ninth grader Sierra Lafavor was an attorney on one of the trials.

“To prepare for the trial, we had to come up with different pieces of evidence and cross and direct examination questions,” Lafavor said.

Lafavor said it took about a week to prepare.

“Our trial did not go as great as planned in my opinion, but the jurors still voted our way,” Lafavor said.

Lafavor said it showed her what to say and what not to say in the court.

“It was a hands-on way of learning about the court of law which sticks in your brain more than seeing it on paper,” Lafavor said.

Ninth grader Riley Mcgeary was also a part of the trials as a witness.

“To prepare for the trial, I had to make sure I knew my witness statement really well to ensure that I could answer questions with consistency,” Mcgeary said.

Mcgeary thought her trial went really well, and the attorneys did great jobs with the direct and cross examinations.

“My favorite part about the trial was giving my testimony to the jury,” Mcgeary said.

Ninth grader Mallory Cree was a part of the jury and was one of the deciding factors in the case.

“I had to read over instructions for being a part of the jury and had to take a quiz on that information. After the trial, I had to write an essay saying my final thoughts and whether or not the defendant was guilty,” Cree said.

Cree said her favorite part of the trial was watching the opposing sides argue and not having to partake in the actual argument, but watching them both come up with evidence to support their cases.

“The trial was very different from anything else we have done in that class because it gave us a real life example of what a trial would actually look like rather than just reading from a book or online and taking quizzes,” Cree said.