Glen Rock Middle School Students Take 1st, 2nd in Law Contest

The following was sent by the Glen Rock Public Schools.

The New Jersey State Bar Foundation has announced that two teams of seventh graders from Glen Rock have won both first and second place in its annual Law Adventure competition.

The teams, comprised of 13 seventh grade students from the Gifted and Talented group, prepared original mock law cases on each of the required themes of New Jersey social media law (The Case of the Catastrophic Crosswalk) and New Jersey motor vehicle law (The Treacherous Tweet.) Team members include Ryan Barron, Richard Beezley, Nicholas Blount, Alison Erani, Julia Fish, Jarod Forer, Ryan Morley, James O’Rourke, Michael Passarelli, Williams Rabens, Ian Stephenson, Alex Walter, and Jean Walter, led by Gifted and Talented teacher Mary Morrow. 

According to the extensive contest rules established by the foundation, these mock cases cannot be based on any real scenario or any work of fiction (i.e. fairy tale, novel, film) but can be based on current events. They may be criminal or civil cases and must include plaintiff(s), defendants(s) and witnesses. The goal of the competition is to promote understanding of the law and how the justice system works and the cases are judged on how well they indicate the students’ grasp of those factors. In addition, they are also evaluated for quality of writing and originality of the case.

Glen Rock first entered this contest in 2010 and since then has garnered first place three times and second place once, establishing the Glen Rock teams among the top performers in the state.

The contest is open to all New Jersey seventh and eighth graders in public and private schools. In total, 123 entries were received this year. The Glen Rock team won for all seventh grade entries. 

Having written the winning cases, the students have been invited to perform their trials at the NJ Bar Center in New Brunswick on May 22. The cases will be performed in front of a jury of students from around the state and will be heard by a judge who is part of the NJ State Bar Foundation. 

The students have already begun preparing for their presentation, as they must develop their written case scenarios into mock trial scripts, which in turn they will actually perform at the Bar Center. Before stepping into the court room, the team will need to develop a thorough understanding of all the laws that apply to their cases, the physical and emotional needs of the witnesses in the case, and the proceedings of a trial.