Worcester middle schoolers take up 4th Amendment rights case in mock trial

WORCESTER — After about five minutes of deliberation, two juries covering the same case in separate courtrooms came to the same ruling — that the Fourth Amendment rights of the student in the case of Ross v. Clearmont High School were violated.

Of course, the case established no actual legal precedent: It was a mock trial for students from the city's Forest Grove and Dr. Arthur F. Sullivan middle schools who participated Monday evening inside the U.S. District Courthouse on Main Street.

“It was a really good experience, I think, that I'll definitely remember,” said Maia Bickford-Loy, a Sullivan Middle School seventh grader, who was among the more than two dozen students present. “It was something definitely that can help with confidence in the future.”

For 11 weeks, students from both schools met with lawyers — described as legal mentors — for hour-and-a-half sessions each week.

Stephanie Machado, a guidance counselor at Forest Grove and who helped coordinate the trip to federal court, said she was impressed by how quickly the students bought into it and by their enthusiasm.

“We stay after school until 5 o'clock once a week,” Machado said. “It's a long day for the students, but they are committed. And I couldn't be more impressed working with them. It's really a pleasure.”

The students presided over a case centered on the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees people protection from unreasonable searches and seizures.

“This is my third time doing it. Obviously I enjoy it because I keep coming back, but every time we do this, the students just amaze me with their intelligence,” said Catherine Madsen, one of the legal mentors. “They’re very committed.”

A lesson in constitutional rights

The hypothetical case was about a student who argued their Fourth Amendment rights were violated when their school principal searched their cellphone and computer.

It drew inspiration from a real-life landmark federal case covering the same constitutional rights  — New Jersey v. T.L.O. from the 1980s — but the details were changed to make it current, said Luke Matys, a program manager with Discovering Justice, the nonprofit that helped organize the mock trial.

The Boston-based group holds mock trials in courtrooms throughout the state and will return in spring 2023 to give students the opportunity to be involved in the hypothetical appeal of the case they argued Monday.

Matys, a Worcester native, said it was important to bring the program back to Worcester after a temporary hiatus in the city.

“It was really important for me to be back in this community and working with these teachers and schools that I'm familiar with and people that I'm familiar with, too,” Matys said. “I'm passionate about bringing lawyers and teachers and students and judges who don't typically interact with each other together to do something powerful.”

Dressed in their best attire and split between the plaintiff’s side and the defendant’s side, students took turns giving opening and closing statements, cross-examining witnesses and waiting eagerly to hear the verdict from a jury.

They presented their cases in front of two presiding U.S. District Court judges — David H. Hennessy and Timothy S. Hillman — and juries made up of city and school officials, lawyers and community leaders.

Inside look at justice system

For Adrian Angus, a public defender and member of the Committee for Public Counsel Services, it was an opportunity for students to get an up-close view of the justice system, particularly Worcester’s justice system.

“It provides realism for kids. They’re learning techniques lawyers learn and use every day,” Angus said. “It is a great exchange between the kids and this tight-knit legal community.”

Zavannah Arboleda, a seventh grader at Sullivan Middle School, said she felt nervous leading up to the mock trial because she didn’t know which side would win.

But the nerves quickly went away.

“My favorite time would be when I was questioning Kendall Ross (the plaintiff) because I felt like it was good for the jurors to know what Kendall Ross was like,” Arboleda said. “How he is. What he's like. What he's really about.”

She said it also helped that she fully bought into what she was arguing. After receiving a packet with information about the case, she felt the information provided made a strong case for the plaintiff.

Dimitra Christofilopoulou, an eighth grader from Forest Grove, who was also part of the plaintiff’s side, gave credit to the defendants, who she said “did a great job.”

Forest Grove eighth grader Jenny Manxhari said her favorite part was cross-examining witnesses, saying, “I like hearing a person’s perspective.”

At the end of the trial, students had the opportunity to get a photo with the presiding judge, receive a certificate and grab a slice of well-earned pizza.

For Greg James, a Goddard Scholars Academy civics teacher at Sullivan Middle School who also helped coordinate the trip, the program was impressive.

“The way they build it as a training, teaching curriculum, I'm very impressed. It's really kind of like becoming a lawyer in a box,” James said. “There's really nice moments that the kids get to have together each week and to watch them take it seriously, to invest in it, to show up the way they do tonight, it's really nice.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Worcester students from Forest Grove and Dr. Arthur F. Sullivan middle schools take part in mock trial