Pine-Richland Middle School Teams Win Cases
Three Pine-Richland Middle School Eighth Grade Mock Trial teams won their cases on March 8, 2016 at La Roche College. (Photos posted above.) 

Opposing teams voted on best witnesses and attorneys for the Pine-Richland Teams and included best witnesses Kylie Zirckel, Jake Campbell and Niochlas Michel and best attorneys Olivia McGeary, Aidan Pavlick and Justin Waltrip. 
The Mock Trial Competition is one of a series of law-related and civic education programs conducted by the PBA. This year the middle school students developed strategies with the team members as they utilized critical thinking to study the Mock Trial civil case of the Estate of Simone Langston v. Dr. Lefu Harrison.
Pine-Richland High School State Mock Trial Team Finishes in Top Four 
 The Pine-Richland High School State Mock Trial Team finished in the top four in the Pennsylvania State Mock Trial Regional Competition. 

Students in the Gifted & Talented Education (GATE) program were divided into three teams; a plaintiff team and two defense teams.  Teacher Kathy Deal said that all three won their trials.

“Students were judged at trial as a team and evaluated individually by a real attorney who presided as the Judge in the case,” said Mrs. Deal.  “Students play the role of an attorney or a witness at the trial.”

The Northern Area Gifted Consortium Middle School Mock Trial NAGC organizes this event for middle school students.

This enrichment event was sponsored by the Northern Area Gifted Consortium which consists of gifted educators from the North Hills grades six through 12.

 “Students prepare for several months to compete in a Middle School Mock Trial where their team competes against another team from a school in the North Hills school,” said Mrs. Deal.

 The students analyze a case that was used in prior years at the Statewide High School Mock Trial Competition.  The high school statewide competition is sponsored by the Young Lawyers Division of the Pennsylvania Bar Association (PBA/YLD). It provides high school students with firsthand experience of the American judicial system.