Registration is now open for the 2015 Michigan High School Mock Trial Tournament
The Michigan Center for Civic Education announces that registration is now open for high schools to register for the 2015 Tournament.
Regional competitions will take place on the following dates:
•February 28, 2015; Washtenaw County Regional
•March 7, 2015; Macomb County Regional and Kent County Regional
•March 14, 2015; Oakland County Regional
The top 10 teams will compete in the State Finals on March 28, 2015, in Lansing.
The state champions will be eligible to compete in the National Mock Trial Championship in Raleigh, North Carolina, May 14-16, 2015.
This year’s case is a civil case– Smith v. Lakeshore Computers– about a high-school student’s right to privacy when using a school-provided laptop computer:
Western High School approached Lakeshore Computers with a proposed plan to provide all Western High students with personal laptop computers. With approval of the PTA and the School Board, the program launched with the 2011-2012 school year. At the beginning of the year, Lakeshore and Western HS held information sessions for students and parents in which they discussed the positive aspects of the new program along with some general rules and insurance guidelines. Jami Smith, a Western High senior, turned 18 at the beginning of the 2011-2012 year, so when the new laptop program started, s/he signed the applicable contract on his/her own. As the year progressed, Jami and his/her friends became suspicious that the school was spying on them using the laptops’ webcams, so they created a plan to put their suspicions to the test. Their plan worked, and when they discovered that the school, Lakeshore, and CoolTech, Inc. (a Lakeshore subsidiary) had been capturing images from students’ webcams and taking remote screenshots of their laptops, Jami filed his/her lawsuit.
The MHSMTT has been organized and conducted by the Michigan Center for Civic Education since 1982. Teams of 6-10 students present arguments before panels of three judges per courtroom. One judge presides over the trial, while the others serve as the jury.
The Michigan High school Mock Trial Tournament is made possible through support from the State Bar of Michigan, Oakland County Bar Foundation, Litigation Section, State Bar of Michigan, and the Macomb County Bar Foundation.
More information about the Michigan High School Mock Trial Tournament and how ot register is available here.
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