DIS middle school students showcase legal skills in mock trial

A group of seventh graders at Daniel Island School (DIS) started the new year with a bang. The bang of a judge’s gavel that is, as they enacted a mock courtroom trial based on the Newberry award-winning novel “Nothing But the Truth” by Avi, a popular author of young adult books.

Daniel Island School ELA (English Language Arts) teachers Jennifer Fisher and Amanda Atkins expertly led the students through the difficult, but ultimately rewarding, process of asking the right questions and relying on solid evidence to get to the truth.

The story unfolds through a documentary-style format: a collection of dialogues, memos, diary entries, newspaper articles and radio transcripts, so that the reader, rather than the narrator, can judge the truth for himself or herself. The plot centers on high school freshman and aspiring track star, Philip Malloy, an academically unmotivated student, who receives a “D” in English. He adds insult to injury by humming the National Anthem during class, disrupting the traditional morning moment of silence. Malloy refuses to apologize to his teacher, Margaret Narwin, and is suspended from school. He then complains to his parents that he was silenced for “singing” the National Anthem (not merely humming it). Family, friends and even the media, blinded by their belief in the boy’s patriotic spirit, fail to investigate the truth, thereby slandering Mrs. Narwin’s good name and prompting her to leave the school. Not until the end of the book, when Philip can’t join his class in the singing of the National Anthem - because he admits he doesn’t know the words - does the truth come out.

“Nothing But the Truth” is not for passive readers who want an easily digestible story spoon fed to them. This unique work of fiction requires active reading to tie together the information from the various “sources,” without the help of a narrative guide. Thanks to a team of dedicated teachers, DIS seventh graders do indeed have the solid reading skills needed to appreciate Avi’s creative story-telling technique. In fact, several of the students expressed surprise and dismay to learn that their peers around the nation, via various online reader reviews (goodreads.com) did not care for the book (some called it “boring” and “confusing”).

“‘Nothing But the Truth’ is an amazing book,” insists student Jen Szlosek. “How could anyone not have fun gathering all the evidence and seeing everyone’s side of the story?”

Mrs. Fisher elaborates: “The kids loved reading ‘Nothing But the Truth,’ which not only examines the concept of truth, it lends itself well to a mock trial because there is a disagreement between a teacher and a student and one could conceivably take either side - there is no clear right or wrong. As you read every letter, diary entry and memo in the story, you have to consider the perspective and ask yourself ‘whose truth, which truth, is reflected here?’”

Mrs. Fisher points out that the mock trial took several weeks to prepare, from the reading of the text to collecting evidence for the trial. The students also ran through a mock trial, for practice, on an unrelated case (a “hit and run” involving a car and a bicycle) used from the South Carolina Bar Association website to help prepare them for their roles in court (https://www.scbar.org/public/students-educators/high-school-mock-trial/).

The students then acted out scenes from Avi’s book in class in order to put themselves in the “shoes” of the different characters, then selected the role they wanted to play in the trial: judges, reporters, bailiffs, jurors - and of course counsel for defense and prosecution. In order for more students to have an opportunity to take the floor, prosecutorial and defense teams each had counsel for one of the four key parts of the trial: opening statement, direct examination, cross examination and closing statement.

Two trials took place during the third week of January, each with its own outcome (the first trial ended in a hung jury, while the second resulted in a majority vote in favor of the prosecution). Mrs. Fisher points out, “The jurors were only allowed to consider evidence presented in the trial, not anything they remembered from the book. And, while all participants came to the courtroom fully prepared, unexpected things happened, as they do in a real life trial. We had no idea how things would unfold.”

Seventh grade student and Daniel Island News Kids Say Reporter Søren Spina served as cross-examination counsel for the prosecution in the second trial.

“We learned that there were very specific strategies that lawyers use in the courtroom to get the responses they are looking for,” says Søren. “As a cross-examiner, I could ask more specific questions based on evidence provided during direct examination. I did a lot of preparation for the trial, creating a script that might work in every possible scenario, creating a line of questioning for every possible outcome, based on the evidence at hand.”

“However,” continues Søren, “if a line of questioning prepared from my script didn’t work, I had to think pretty quickly; I used a strategy where I figure out how to use the evidence at hand to my advantage and approach my questioning from a different angle.”

“You really have to stay focused,” agrees ‘Judge’ KC Cazabon. “The hardest part of being a judge was having to pay close attention every minute to what was being said, trying to understand the relevance of each argument, when to redirect, when to sustain or overrule an argument. As a judge, you really have to be on your toes.”

Søren points out that the trial - and the ultimate success of the prosecution’s argument - was very much a collaborative effort. “Everyone did the research before the trial to find evidence that we all relied on to play our parts,” he says. “But good teamwork also helped me to win my argument.”

Søren recalls that, at one point, when he couldn’t get his “witness,” Philip Malloy’s father, to admit he lied, Direct Examination Counsel Lucas Cate came to the rescue.

“Lucas helped me by finding evidence to the contrary (on page 118 of the book itself),” recalls Søren, which forced Malloy’s dad to admit that he had lied. “Not only was the counsel for the defense speechless, I couldn’t help but think ‘Holy Smoke, I was right!’ I had trusted a hunch to press the witness to tell the truth - and we got the evidence we needed to win the case!”

Wasn’t it nerve-wracking, having to think on his feet and field all those extemporaneous, off-script questions?

“Not at all,” insists Søren. “I really wanted to prove my point and win the case! It was all very exciting!”

According to Mrs. Fisher, there was one other key learning point the seventh grade students aced while acting out the trial.

“Our standards require us to teach our students to think critically about a text and write arguments that use textual evidence to support claims,” she says. “The expertise and professionalism displayed in the mock courtroom - and the closing arguments of prosecutors like ‘Counselor’ James Thompson - make it clear that DIS seventh graders do indeed know how to think critically and argue claims based on thoroughly researched evidence. Moreover, they know how to separate truth from fiction, collaborate with others, come to the table expertly well-prepared, whether to navigate a real-life trial…or become the kind of effective leader our nation needs.”