Colleagues,
We are excited to share this positive article highlighting collaboration at Attleboro High School that was published in the “Sun Chronicle”. Carpentry students saved the Attleboro School District about $98,000! Congratulations students and staff!
We thank Jeremy Guay, Director of Career and Technical Education, for sharing this with us.
David
Attleboro High School students build courtroom for peers in Mock Trial Club
By David Linton dlinton
ATTLEBORO — The courtroom at Attleboro High School looks real. There are flags and a seal behind the judge’s bench, a witness stand and a jury box.
But anyone “convicted” in this courtroom will just go on to their next class instead of the house of correction.
The courtroom was built by Kelvin Martinez, 18, and Jack FitzGerald, 17, for their senior project in teacher Mark Homer’s carpentry class.
It will serve as the center of legal battles by student lawyers in the school’s Mock Trial Club and their counterparts at other schools in addition to criminal justice students.
“This is what I’m most proud of all the work we’ve done so far,” Martinez said. “And it will be here forever.”
The two carpentry students credited Homer for helping them with certain aspects of the project, which they began in October.
But like any construction job, there were delays in getting supplies and they had to contend with school vacations, the students said.
They had enough of it completed, however, in time for the first mock trial competition Jan. 13 with Attleboro hosting St. John’s Prep, a Catholic school in Danvers.
While the legal eagles were preparing for the competition, they said they were sweating it out the day before to get it built.
“We were here for seven hours working to get it done,” FitzGerald said, adding that some detail work and other finishing touches still need to be made.
But the verdict is in for Tobey Reed, who teaches criminal justice and is the adviser to the school’s Mock Trial Club and the two student co-captains.
“It’s beyond my expectations. The detail is on point. They worked above and beyond. They took real pride in their work,” Reed said.
Before the carpentry students were assigned to the task, Reed said he checked with a company that builds courtrooms and learned it would have cost up to $100,000.
Martinez and FitzGerald got it done for about $2,000 and the seal behind the judge’s bench was made by the school’s graphics department, Reed said.
The Mock Trial Club’s co-captains, seniors Sarah Laurila and Grace Roopcharan, both 17, were impressed with the carpentry work of their schoolmates.
“The courtroom setting makes it more real,” said Roopcharan, who wants to be a psychiatrist and possibly work with crime victims.
“Honestly, it’s just a great space for us to practice,” said Laurila, who wants to go to law school and become a prosecutor.
Because of the pandemic, past mock trial competitions took place over Zoom which they said were limited by technical issues or other problems and because the legal battles were not in person.
“Honestly, it’s just a great space for us to practice,” said Laurila, who wants to go to law school and become a prosecutor.
Because of the pandemic, past mock trial competitions took place over Zoom which they said were limited by technical issues or other problems and because the legal battles were not in person.
For several years, criminal justice students and club members have been regular guests at Attleboro District Court, where judges or area lawyers have presided over student trial competitions.
Although the students now have a courtroom of their own, Reed said he still wants students to witness actual legal proceedings at the Attleboro court.
“It’s not what it’s like on TV,” he said.