School Bullying Council

CLEVELAND — About 400 Cleveland high school students argued the fictional case of a bullied student in this year’s ‘Mock Trial’ competition at the Justice Center Friday.

It’s the 15th year for the competition, and this time students from 11 high schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District were taking part.

They argued a case involving a bullied student who brought a weapon to school for self-defense. The theme was developed by Cleveland Municipal Court Judge Lauren C. Moore.

She talked to the students about one of the most important issues in their lives and at their schools.

“It is bullying. It is insensitivity. It is incivility to each other and we’ve got to stop it,” the judge said.

At the mock trial, teams from the various schools debated whether a fictional student who had been bullied should be convicted of bringing a knife to school to defend himself, should the bully attack him again.

Several Cleveland Municipal Court judges judged the competition, as did Jan Mohat, the mother of a 17-year-old Mentor High School student who took his own life in 2007 after being constantly bullied.

“He was so abused that, on the day he killed himself,” Jan Mohat told the students, ”the bully went up to him and said, ‘Eric why don’t you go home and shoot yourself, it’s not like anyone would care.’ And he did. And his sister found him.”

The students listened in silence to Mohat’s description of the abuse her son endured day after day before he ended his own life.

“People that bully, they need to look inside themselves and see what they are doing is wrong,” said John Hay High School sophomore Autumn Jefferson. ”That’s just a terrible thing to do.”

Glenville High School tenth grader Desmond Barrett agreed. He admitted to having been bullied since the fifth grade.

Barrett, who acted as an assistant prosecutor on one of the student teams at the competition, told WKYC, “I’m not going to lie to you. You try to deal with it, you try to shove it off, but you can’t. It’s a problem and you can face it sometimes, but sometimes you can’t.”

Barrett thoughtfully reflected on the story of Eric Mohat.

“That’s very sad and I don’t know how anybody could do through anything like that,” he said softly. “And I don’t think anybody should ever be bullied at any time in their life. My heart goes out to his famiy.”

The students who took part in the mock trial also signed an Anti-Bullying Pledge that encourages them, among other things, to report bullying immediately any time they see it.

Winners of the trial competition for 2011 were members of team Alpha, from the Cleveland School of the Arts.

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SOUTH HADLEY — Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School in South Hadley has been named the state champion of the Massachusetts Bar Association’s 2011 mock trial program.

The high school now moves on to the national high school mock trial championship scheduled for May 4-8 in Phoenix.

Pioneer Valley and Boston Latin School competed during a three-hour mock trial in Boston’s Faneuil Hall.

The mock trial program places high school teams from 16 regions across Massachusetts in simulated courtroom situations where they assume the roles of lawyers, defendants and witnesses in hypothetical cases. More than 120 teams competed this year.

Now in its 26th year, the program is administered by the Massachusetts Bar Association.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20110403south_hadley_school_wins_2011_mock_trial_championship/srvc=home&position=recent

Menlo School in Atherton recently won the final round of the San Mateo County Mock-Trial Championship against last year’s state winner, Hillsdale High School.

Menlo now heads to the state championship competition in Irvine in late March.

The mock-trial contests test courtroom legal skills of teams of students.

At the county finals, the Menlo team swept all eight jurors’ score cards to defeat Hillsdale and notch a third win in the past four years.

Menlo went undefeated in the first three rounds of competition to advance to the playoffs, where both its prosecution and defense members beat out San Mateo High by wide margins.

The student teams argued a mock case involving cyberbullying and the First Amendment.

The Menlo team featured 25 students, who prepared for the county finals for months.

“Winning with a team that only has three seniors has been especially gratifying this season,” said Dan Devitt, Menlo teacher and mock-trial team sponsor.

Student jazz band earns high mark

The student jazz band from Borel Middle School recently earned high honors at the annual California Music Educators Association Festival at College of San Mateo.

The Borel musicians scored a “Unanimous Superior” mark, the highest possible rating. They were the only middle school band at the festival to achieve the rating.

At the festival, judges rated ensembles on their performance,

scoring them on the musical standards of intonation, rhythm, style, overall musicality and sight-reading.

Also, the Borel band has been chosen to participate at the Monterey NextGen Jazz Festival on April 3. This festival is by invitation only, and performers are picked through a taped audition.

For more information about Borel, visit the school’s website at www.smfc.k12.ca.us/borel.

Summer camp offers early-bird discounts

Summer-camp operator Galileo Learning is offering families early-bird savings on its enrichment programs for students at various Bay Area locations, including the Peninsula.

The deadline to enroll children for the programs on a discounted basis is Tuesday.

To enroll, call 800-854-3684 or visit their website at www.galileo-learning.com.

For more information, call 510-595-7293.

Chalk Talk is a regular feature with items about schools, students, teachers and administrators in San Mateo County. To submit an item, write to Chalk Talk, San Mateo County Times, 477 Ninth Ave., Suite 110, San Mateo, CA 94402; send a fax to 650-348-4446; or e-mail education reporter Neil Gonzales at ngonzales@bayareanewsgroup.com. Also, visit the Chalk Talk blog at www.ibabuzz.com/chalktalk.

http://www.mercurynews.com/san-mateo-county/ci_17497615