NICHOLE CAVADA
STAFF WRITER
Moanalua High School’s junior attorneys are state champions again. They are also the runners up. Moanalua High School’s Pre-Law society, known as the school’s Mock Trial team, made history March 9 as the only school to have two of its teams in the state finals, with their Blue and Silver teams competing against each other. After a tough competition between the two teams, the Blue team took home the state title.
Senior Paneez Oliai, a member of the Blue team explained just how despite the Blue team’s success in the finals, competing against the Silver team was very difficult.
“For us we always scrimmage against each other at school but this was the most intense scrimmage we’ve ever had,” Oliai said.
This year has been a significant year for the entire Mock Trial team, as both Silver and Blue teams have had an undefeated season. Despite losing the title to their fellow teammates and being comprised of mostly freshmen and new recruits, the Silver team performed impressively, beating out all the other schools in the preliminary rounds, including Island School, a private college preparatory school on Kauai, who took home the state title last year.
“It’s awesome!” Mock Trial Adviser and social studies teacher Tana Cambe said. “The past two years were pretty rough. We got second place I think two years ago and we got third place last year. Before that, I think we had seven years in a row where we had the state title. It’s good to have [victory] come back here after those ten years,” Cambe said.
The history-making pairing came after the Blue and Silver teams each won its preliminary round. This turn of events surprised many of the Mock Trial team members.
“Saturday morning was the first trial. [Moanalua] Silver went against Island School from Kauai and [Moanalua] Blue went against Pearl City White. They both won the morning competition which made them eligible for the afternoon competition, which put [Blue and Silver] against each other,” Cambe explained.
Oliai went on to explain that “it was almost funny because they knew what our questions were, we had the same script. We've come so far, everything that could go wrong went wrong. It's the most insane thing ever, but I could not ask for a better team.”
The Blue team will be traveling to Athens, Georgia on May 16-18, 2019 to compete in the National High School Mock Trial Championships.
Now that their season is over, the Mock Trial team is looking for new members, as many of the current members will be graduating this school year.
The Mock Trial team engages in debates of which simulate a real trial to provide students early experience in legal procedures, and a look at how law looks like at practice. Students are given the opportunity to unfold their professionalism, confidence, and public speaking abilities; all of which are important in both academic and occupational work. The Pre-Law society is an ideal fit for those who are interested in pursuing a career in the field of law, but nevertheless it can be a beneficial pursuit for any future college students, as it allows them to develop meaningful skills that are applicable to numerous situations.
“There are currently 25+ students participating,” said Cambe. Moanalua has participated in mock trials for over 20 years, 5 of which are currently with Cambe.
“What we expect is self-motivated students who are interested in the law and practices of courtroom procedures. We look for actors who want to take on the roles of a witness to make them as convincing as possible. Also attorneys who ask questions to witnesses in front of actual Judges (who rule on objections and the law) who are currently in practice (or retired) in the Hawaii legal system,” Cambe said.
Mock Trial participants deliberate about issues of the law, with cases being either civil (disputes between two entities) or criminal (such as murder or robbery).
“In the past, we have had a civil case which dealt with a minor who forged his parents signature to participate in a Paintball tournament since he was underage. During the competition he was injured and had a concussion therefore sued the operators of the paintball arena for negligence,” Cambe explained.
“An example of a criminal case we had in the past had to do with an individual stealing other people’s identity via credit card fraud,” Cambe said.
Mock Trial participants undertake certain parts of the highly structured activity, such as opening statements, direct examinations, cross examinations, closing arguments, and more. Moanalua has two teams partake in competition every year, namely, Moanalua Blue and Silver. Moanalua Blue is purely composed of veterans, whereas Silver includes both veterans and new recruits.
If you are interested in joining the Mock Trial team, please contact Tana Cambe in G202.