Riverside
For the second year in a row, Poly High School won the annual Riverside County Mock Trial competition, outperforming Valley View High School which earned second place and Martin Luther King and Notre Dame High Schools who shared a third-place finish. Now the Poly High team prepares to head to the statewide tournament in Los Angeles on March 20, 2020. Each year Riverside’s Mock Trial competition is sponsored by the county’s Office of Education, in partnership with the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Riverside County Bar Association and the Superior Court. Since the county began hosting the competition in 1983, more than 14,000 students have participated in the competition. This year’s competition involved students arguing a fictitious case related to a spousal murder—People v. Matsumoto. Each team consisted of eight to 25 students playing the parts of deputy district attorneys, defense attorneys, bailiffs, witnesses, clerks and investigators. Student performances were judged by a panel of practicing attorneys and judges. The students were awarded points for their performances based on criteria previously established for the competition.
Header Photo: 2019 Poly High Mock Trial Team Winners
