” If I ever got arrested, I would be my own lawyer,” said Nikos Povilaitis, junior, an attorney of the all boys mock trial team.

Faith Lutheran made history and attended the First Annual In-House Mock Trial Competition.  All of the students were tense with nerves for their chance to take the stand; tapping pencils and quietly reviewing their notes. There were a total of five teams that had forty students competing along with ten volunteer attorney coaches helping the students.

This year, the Mock Trial team has been revamped by coach and teacher, Ms. Uy. “Unlike previous years, the Faith squads weren’t organized into Varsity or Junior Varsity; instead, the students were able to pick their own squad members and give their squad a unique name,” said Uy. ” This year’s Mock Trial Team had six in-house squads competing for three spots to advance to Regionals.  The First Annual In-house competition was held on January 25, 2014 at Family Court.”

 There were four student volunteers including Emma Akers, Maddie Emes, Tyree Brown, and Corrine Johnson. The students weren’t the only ones in  attendance that day, teachers came along too. Mr. Reilly, Mrs. Gravitt, Mrs. Cannitto, and Mrs. McAllister acted as judges for the students.  The other judges, however, weren’t Faith affiliated and included Judge Moss, Judge Gonzalez and Judge Guiliani.

Many parents and family members came out to support the apprentice lawyers; leaving hardly any standing room throughout the trials. The case the students arrugued was very unique, and garnered attention and strong opinions from all of the students. The case was about a couple of high school students going boating on prom night.  While they were out, a person is killed and arguably run over by a boat propeller.  One of the boat drivers are on trial for recklessly boating and causing the death. The Faith Lutheran students argued both sides of the case, and provided very strong arguments.

The AP Mock trial team is prepared to gear up for state and take home first place. Senior Jacob Deaville, one of the two captains of the state bound AP Mock Trial team, said, “At state we need to find out how our witnesses can work better.” The team doesn’t need to practice too much harder though, considering they tied with Bishop Gorman for first place, and ultimately took second place. Recently added to the state roster, is the other all girls mock trial team: Faith Gold.

Make sure to come out and support these talented apprentice lawyers at state March 7th (2:30 pm) and March 8th (8:30 am). The event will be held at the Regional Justice Center 200 Lewis, Las Vegas, Nevada. Remember no faith gear and no talking is allowed in the courtroom, or else our teams could receive penalties. State looks very promising for our teams this year, so make sure to congratulate the team members for making it all this way before they leave Friday!