The Cazenovia High School Mock Trial Team bested West Genesee High School in the third round of competition. The team now begins the sudden-death rounds that lead up to the finals in the Onondaga County Courthouse.
The team is litigating a criminal case involving a charge of disorderly conduct.
In People v. Carson Conners, the defendant is a high school student with poor grades who is accused of “tumultuous and violent conduct and threatening behavior” in school. The defendant asserts that the charge was merely a ruse to get her suspended during standardized testing so that she would not bring down the teacher’s class average.
Once again, the team represented the People with Zane Anthony, Eric Liddell and Megan Schwartz acting as the prosecutors.
In this round, Eva Salzman played the part of Ms. Smith, the teacher who accused the defendant of the disorderly conduct. Shea Flannery acted the part of Officer Jones, the school resource officer who rushed to the scene and arrested the defendant. Glen Hartley was Dr. Crosby, the Assistant Principal who the defense argues has pressured the teachers to improve their test scores to the degree that a “school-to-prison-pipeline” has been created.
While the remaining teams, (Fayetteville-Manlius, Jamesville-Dewitt, CBA, East-Syracuse Minoa, Liverpool and Marcellus) will compete on March 22, Caz has agreed to go up against Westhill again on March 29 as a favor to the organizers due to a scheduling conflict. If the Lakers prevail, the defense will face the winner of the Liverpool-Marcellus match on April 5 in the semi-finals.
