Last Year STHS Was First Runner-up

COLUMBIA, S.C. (March 11, 2015)— Strom Thurmond High School will join 11 other schools to compete in the SC Bar State High School Mock Trial Competition March 13-14 at the Matthew J. Perry Jr. Federal Courthouse in Columbia.

Participating students from Strom Thurmond High School include Antonia Adams, Delshawn Anderson, Maegan Carter, Kristal Herrin, Jamarr McCain, Arturo Pineda, Grace Russ, Michael Stradley, Royden Watkins and Keyson Whiteside. The teacher coaches are Denise Jackson and Steven McKinney. The attorney coaches are Sen. Shane Massey and Blair Massey.

At the state competition students will present the prosecution and defense sides of a fictitious criminal case before a panel of volunteer lawyers and judges. This year’s case focuses on a university student’s role in the research of security threats and ultimate hacking of a retailer’s website. As a part of the case, students will discuss financial transaction card fraud, financial transaction card or number theft and computer crime. Students will fill the roles of attorneys, witnesses, bailiffs and timekeepers, and each team will be judged on its presentation skills, rather than the legal merits of the case. The students presented the same case at the qualifying regional competition.

Strom Thurmond qualified at the Piedmont regional competition along with Bob Jones Academy and Fort Mill. Other qualifying High School Mock Trial teams include the Governor’s School for Science and Mathematics, Johnsonville, N. Myrtle Beach and Socastee from the Coastal region; Fort Dorchester and Wando from the Lowcountry region; and Chapin, Dutch Fork and River Bluff from the Midlands region.

The 2015 State High School Mock Trial champion will advance to the National High School Mock Trial Championship competition held in Raleigh, N.C. May 14-16. For more information about the Mock Trial case or program, available for elementary, middle and high school students, visit www.scbar.org/lre.

The Mock Trial program is sponsored by the SC Bar’s Law Related Education (LRE) Division, which was developed in 1976 to improve the ability of teachers to instruct law related education. The Mock Trial program is supported by the Bar’s LRE Committee and made possible through a SC Bar Foundation IOLTA grant and the SC Bar. The SC Bar, which has a membership of more than 15,000 lawyers, is dedicated to advancing justice, professionalism and understanding of the law.