CHICO — Haven’t you heard? More than a dozen Chico High School students are headed to court.
No, they’re not in trouble — at least not in real life. Some of them may be on the “hot seat” as defendants in this court proceeding, but it’s all an exercise in an effort to learn the workings of the legal world.
The school has a team of 17 students who will compete in the Butte County Mock Trial competition in late February. They’ll vie with other schools for a chance to represent Butte County at the California Mock Trial competition in Los Angeles.
This is the first time Chico has ever entered a squad in the competition, according to Mary Ellen Garrahy, the Butte County Office of Education’s student events coordinator. She oversees competitions like this one, including the Spelling Bee, Poetry Out Loud and Academic Decathlon and educational celebrations such as National History Day.
Mock Trial is her focus right now, and Chico wouldn’t have figured into the equation if not for a sophomore named Alicia Hunt during the 2022-23 school year.
Hunt had learned about Mock Trial from a friend in Sacramento, Garrahy said, and immediately decided she’d like to organize a team for her school.
“She was so passionate about starting a team,” Garrahy recalled about Hunt. “She had been calling me since summer. She really wanted to do it, so she got a petition going from students who also wanted to do it.”
Demonstrating interest was only the first step in the process, Garrahy said. One of the toughest things to do is finding a teacher willing to take on the role as a team’s adviser. It is an extracurricular activity — outside of school hours — and is on top of a teacher’s already-busy workload.
“It’s a small program,” she explained. “Teachers have to take it on, and there are lots of moving parts. We have just a few teams every year.
“I typically go to principals and tell them we have this program, and ask, ‘Are any of your teachers interested?'”
Chico didn’t have an adviser until Casey Van Attenhoven, in her second year teaching English at the school and seventh year overall, said she’d do it. Like Garrahy, Van Attenhoven described Hunt’s effort to organize a team as “passionate” and admired her determination.
“Alicia was so passionate and so sweet that I just couldn’t say no,” Van Attenhoven explained.
Now, the teacher advises the group by way of twice-weekly meetings — a lunchtime get-together each Monday, and an after-school session Wednesdays when they meet with actual attorneys. Those professionals volunteer to coach and direct the students.
“I prepare for the meetings, creating agendas and hosting the meetings in my classroom,” Van Attenhoven said. “I do a lot of the prep work. Students sign up for roles they’re interested in, but the attorneys will ultimately make the decision on roles for students.
“We started late this year. They (the attorneys) are looking to assign roles in the next couple of weeks. Then we’ll break the kids into groups and begin practicing.”
The attorneys volunteering to assist the Chico High School team include Erika Romo, deputy Butte County District Attorney; Nicole Diamond, and members of her firm Jeff Raven and Brenden Blake; Matt Bently, Taj Gomes and Geoff Dulebohn.
Kendall Smith, another English teacher at the school, serves as an assistant coach.
Garrahy said Mock Trial is a nationwide competition, with each state having its own administering organization. California’s is the Los Angeles-based group Teach Democracy, formerly the Constitutional Rights Foundation. Teach Democracy issues a file of the case in September to every competing team so it can begin making its preparations.
This year’s case will be a “murder” trial. A typical team features between eight and 20 student members, she said.
Garrahy said a team’s teacher and cooperating attorneys will assign roles to individuals. “They usually give the stronger students a role like the direct attorney, with younger students acting as bailiffs or witnesses,” she said.
All of this preparation culminates with a Feb. 22 “trial” date, with an actual Butte County Superior Court judge presiding over the competition.
“Students will show up prepared to be either the defense or the prosecution,” Garrahy said. The attorneys “won’t be looking for who won — the judge does that — but they’ll judge individual student performances. They’ll say, ‘You were really animated or convincing.’
“We’ll score them, and then look at all the scores and determine which team will advance to the state competition” in Los Angeles.
Van Attenhoven, meanwhile, said she’s thoroughly enjoying the process. She doesn’t have any background in legal matters, but has a sister-in-law who’s an attorney, and her father was a member of law enforcement and frequently testified in court as a witness.
“He’s a former narcotics officer,” Van Attenhoven said of her father, who has given her some advice on court actions. “I’m learning a lot,” she said.
Van Attenhoven said the team has attracted students who are quite dedicated to the effort and have the brain power to back it up.
“I would say they’re very sharp,” she said, adding that the kids “get homework from the attorneys assessing the case — for example, working on what the prosecutor might need to assist in the case. The kids came back and pointed out a lot of things.”
Student members of the team include Hunt, Vanessa Aguilar, Olivia Council, Alessandra D’Augusta Perna, Julia Daverson, Amaya Grothe, Andrea Gutierrez, Jimena Gutierrez, Dayanara Guzman, Nathaniel Ison, Athena Lee, Kaylee Morehead, Denise Olmos, Annalisa Pedrinazzi, Mateo Raygoza, Sangi Yaramala and Allan Zepeda.
