STEAM Mock Trial Team formulates questions for mock trial competition

Mount Vernon STEAM Academy’s Mock Trial Team began crafting questions for the first case that they will argue in a competition during their meeting on Monday, January 13, 2025. The team, which started in November and is in its inaugural year, will be competing in the Westchester County Bar Association High School Mock Trial Competition later this year. 

“We are hoping that all of our scholars will benefit, and I know that they are benefiting because we want them to develop their critical thinking skills,” said STEAM Principal Dr. Christopher Pearce. “We want them to know what’s going on in the real world. We want them to be able to use their analytic skills to go through cases to know what took place and to use their intelligence and their abilities to make decisions. In the real world, you need to develop your decision-making skills and learn to collaborate with your team members. Critical thinking skills are important, and all of these things are important in Mock Trial. They’re also doing it after school, which definitely shows dedication.” 

Steve Kollias, social studies teacher at Mount Vernon STEAM Academy, serves as the advisor to the Mock Trial Team. He discussed expectations for their trial and gave guidance to students as they began crafting questions for court.

“I’m just so happy to bring the Mock Trial Team here to the STEAM Academy because it gives the scholars the opportunity to understand the legal field but also gives them the opportunity to publicly speak,” said Mr. Kollias. “It is just such an incredible moment for them to be able to stand before a judge and see a judge sitting in a courtroom that is presiding over this case. It also gives them a great opportunity to include this on their transcripts when they apply for colleges” 

Students recently received a fictional mock trial case from the Westchester Bar Association that they will argue in their competition, and they have been reviewing it. The case deals with a dispute between a school official and a student and examines the use of deepfake videos made with artificial intelligence that could be libelous.

“I’m excited about how this teaches me to be confident when I speak,” said Kerolos Tanios, 10th-grade student at STEAM. “It helps me develop critical thinking skills to solve complex cases, and it teaches me how to develop my own character traits during Mock Trial and how to collaborate with my teammates. This is definitely a complicated case that will take a lot of consideration.”

The team currently meets once a week, and they will meet up to two times a week as the competition gets closer.

 “I’m hoping to gain the skills of how to navigate and how to speak and overall how the courtroom works in a true simulation like this,” said Zachary Cotto, 11th-grade student at STEAM. “I want to be an attorney after college and law school, so this helps me with public speaking. It helps me with moving a judge or jury towards my side, and it all-around just allows me to strengthen my skills in a courtroom.”

Through Mock Trial, students are also able to meet experienced legal professionals and hear firsthand about the field. New York State Justice of the Supreme Court Keri Fiore spoke to the group in December, and Yonkers City Court Judge Verris B. Shako will serve as the legal advisor for the club as they approach the competition.