On December 3rd, students interested in the White Station High School Mock Trial team met in the library from 3-5 pm for its first class. Students of all grades had met prior to this date to discuss the fundamentals of the mock trial competition. The high school mock trial competition is a club in which participants roleplay live actions and events that would take place in a typical court of law.

“I learned that for direct examinations, you can’t ask leading questions and you have to build up a background for your witness. For cross examinations, you want to have constructive questions to help build your case and destructive questions to undermine a witness’s credibility” Daniel Zhu (10), a newcomer to Mock Trial, said.

For the White Station team, a court case is provided annually by the Tennessee Bar Association, the organization responsible for high school Mock Trial in Tennessee. Upon receiving the court case in November, some participants take on the role of witnesses while others create a set of direct and cross examination questions to take on an attorney role. These are to be perfected by February, when the competition often takes place. Currently, participants are preparing for tryouts, which are set to be held Sunday, December 10th, and Tuesday, September 12th.