As the courtroom drama unfolded, Ryan Kelly felt like he was able to get inside the head of the victim.
But Kelly, a senior at Richards High School in Oak Lawn, wasn’t watching from the sidelines. He was in the role of a defense attorney in a mock trial he and several dozen other students enacted as part of their business law class. They were joined by actual attorneys who helped them understand the trial and their parts in it, as well as school administrators and teachers.
The trial was based on a real criminal case involving drug-induced homicide and possession of a controlled substance. It was also used by Illinois State Bar Association in one of their competitions.
“I’ve never done anything like it,” Kelly said. “My character played a real role in showing the true sides of the victim. The victim was a heavy smoker and drinker and my character showed how the victim would skip therapy sessions to smoke and do these different kinds of drugs that were harmful.”
There was also tons of studying and memorizing lines involved.
Working with attorney mentors was another perk. State Rep. Kelly Burke, who is also the mayor of Evergreen Park and an attorney with Odelson & Sterk. Ltd., volunteered along with Margaret Blade of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office, Toscas Law Group owner Zeno Toscas of Palos Heights and several interns from Lewis University.
Hands-on learning is always the goal for James Soderstrom, the business law teacher who organized the mock trial and sought out the attorneys who took part. Soderstrom said he learned about business law and mock trials from Brad Neubauer, a business teacher at Naperville Central High School, and persuaded Community High School District 218 administrators to add the elective in 2018.
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The trial included students who portrayed prosecutors and defense attorneys, legal researchers, witnesses and courtroom bailiffs, as well as the jury. It took several months’ worth of preparation on the part of students, who worked with Soderstrom and the attorney mentors, and the trial lasted the good part of a recent school day.
“The district has moved away from a lot of the read and write/multiple choice learning to a more project-based learning where students have to apply their knowledge and to really show they have knowledge,” Soderstrom said. “This was a great example of that and also just the ability to work in a team and to take someone else’s thoughts and to try to run with it and validate it.”
The trial also required analytical thinking and solving a puzzle together, said Soderstrom said.
“A lot of it is thinking outside the box to solve an issue,” he said.
Several other students said they found it fascinating to work a trial.
Kaley Garcia, a junior, was a prosecution attorney and had to give a closing statement. She learned how from a video and an outline of what needed to be included.
“I really had to learn how a real-life court trial had to work and formulated my own questions based on affidavits,” Garcia said.
She said Toscas helped her with the process.
“He added his real-life experience to help us and tell us what could actually happen,” Garcia said.
Adriana Witkus, a senior, who portrayed a medical witness, said reading the affidavits and seeing the police and lab reports made the trial come alive. Witkus, who hopes to become a lawyer, said the studying and memorization was a challenge, but was well worth it.
“It was nice to see how being prepared for it made it a lot easier … in making us sound more confident in our roles,” Witkus said.
Soderstrom said he hopes to involve one of the other District 218 schools in the future, with one school playing the prosecution and another the defense.
“It was an amazing day,” he said.
Janice Neumann is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.