AKRON – Three teams from Nordonia High School took part in a Mock Trial competition on Friday, January 20th. Facing teams from Green High School, Walsh Jesuit, St. Vincent St. Mary, and 3 different teams from Archbishop Hoban, Nordonia’s 22 students took part in two complete trials at the Summit County Courthouse in downtown Akron.
The fictitious case involved a defamation case of a public official by a news station. The governor, running for reelection, was accused of murder by a student intern, who posted a tweet on behalf of the news station. While the accusation was disproven quickly, the tweet went viral, and after losing the election, the governor filed a civil suit alleging defamation of character. Expert witnesses included polling experts and political scientists arguing for and against the impact of polls on the election. Student teams argued both sides of the case, plaintiff and defense, playing witnesses and attorneys.
Winning Outstanding Witness awards were sophomores Kevin Lewis and Michael Kerosky. Also taking part were Malak and Walid Abuhashim, Laura Bender, McKenzie Clark, Mike and Nicky Dietzen, Amy Rose Dudycz, Hritik Gupta, Kaitlyn Hazelton, Gurleen Kaur, Jaismine Kaur, Kynnidi Knight, Paul Krempasky, Noah Markopoulos, Corrine McHugh, Ryan Stimson, Maggie Thompson, Suzanne Tomak, Savannah Vitt, and Jackie Wendel. The teams’ legal advisor was local attorney Mr. Farhad Sethna and the faculty advisor was high school English and German teacher Endre Szentkiralyi.
Students get a taste of the law
