Acquitting Themselves Admirably

High school senior Casey Clevenger was less than happy to get a B in advanced computer studies. It could well cost him the scholarship he’s seeking.

Then the school’s computer lab was vandalized, with some equipment spray-painted red. When officials discovered young Casey’s B had been changed to an A in the computer, and red paint on latex gloves in his locker matched the paint sprayed around the computer room, guess who the police came looking for?

Judges around the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana have been hearing a lot about People vs. Clevenger in recent weeks. The case was created for mock trial competition among 48 high schools across the county.

Thursday, after regular court work shut down for the day, members of the eight high school teams still alive in the competition bounded out of buses to put on their best cases. Each school has represented the prosecution and the defense at some point in the competition.

I happened to walk into the courthouse with the group from Savanna High School in Anaheim. Their enthusiasm was contagious.

“We’ve got Cypress!” one of them informed the others after hearing the matchups.

“Yes!” most of them said excitedly. Team member Friday Sooksawat explained to me: “We rode in on the same bus with them. They’re good, but it would be fun to beat them.”

Later I ran into the Cypress group.

“We’re ready for them,” said an excited Aaron Fox, who would be the prosecutor for his team.

It was just sheer fun to be there. But then, I didn’t have anything at stake. Jan Miller and her mother, Peggy, had more reason to be nervous. Jan Miller’s daughter, Shawna, is a freshman on the team from Esperanza High of Anaheim.

“The number of hours this team has spent preparing has been amazing,” Jan Miller said.

Later I got the chance to meet Shawna Miller, who told me she’s wanted to be a lawyer since the fifth grade. She explained:

“I’m interested in the law because I see instances where it works. And then it doesn’t work. You know what I mean? I want to help make it work right.”

Before the competition began--in front of real judges in black robes--you could see students off in a corner rehearsing their roles. Jaclyn Zimmerman, captain of the Savanna team, said, “You eat, sleep and dream this. You think about it every minute, even in the shower. This is our life.”

All of them were sharply dressed. And from the moment I heard one of them speak when the “mock” court was in session, I had to smile at how well coached they were.

Each student in the Esperanza-Loara face-off sharply answered Superior Court Judge H. Warren Siegel’s preliminary questions with “That’s correct, Your Honor” or “Yes, Your Honor.” You don’t get very far in the courtroom if you don’t get that “Your Honor” part down right.

Siegel treated them with the same demeanor he probably showed regular lawyers in his courtroom earlier in the day. When one student started talking 90 mph, perhaps from nervousness, Siegel cautioned, “Whoa, slow down.”

Carol Hager watched the proceedings with intense concentration. She’s in her fifth year as Esperanza’s mock trial coach, and making it to this Final Eight is as far as she’s gotten in previous years. Mock trials have been a big part of her life. She had a son and a daughter on mock trial teams, and another son is on the current team.

On Saturday, to prepare for the week’s competition, Hager’s team practiced for nearly 10 hours.

“You have to work to be good,” she said. “But most important, the students have to work as a team. They’ve got to want to support each other. That’s what makes the difference.”

As I watched several of the schools perform, I thought that anybody would have been proud to have a son or daughter there. Cary Logan, whose daughter, Jamie, was on the Savanna team, summed it up: “When you watch them, it’s hard to believe they’re just kids.”

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Constitution Boosters: The mock trial competition is sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange County. It’s a nonprofit group designed to provide law- and business-related education to the county’s high school students.

Since 1981, more than 25,000 students have been involved in its programs. Many of the lawyers who serve as coaches for the student mock trial teams were once mock trial participants themselves. One of them, lawyer Susan Sukura, said the mock trial competition when she attended University High in Irvine “was the first time I realized that a career in law would be rewarding.” She now coaches her old high school’s team.

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Presidential Dilemma: Chapman University President Jim Doti was supposed to appear on a local half-hour TV news program Friday night. But then he found out that the Public Relations Student Society on campus had an event planned for Friday night in which it would present its first annual award for Outstanding Achievement in Public Relations. Its first honoree: President Doti, for “telling the truth, acting for the long term, listening to others, and confronting, not avoiding, the hard questions.”

Doti skipped the TV show.

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Wrap-Up: It was hard to see anybody lose in Thursday’s mock trial competition, because all the students worked so hard to make that final eight. But losing and winning are both part of a student’s life. Here are the four teams who will move on to the semifinals Tuesday evening:

Cypress (defeating Savanna), El Dorado of Placentia (defeating Mission Viejo), Rosary of Fullerton (defeating Villa Park) and Esperanza (defeating Loara of Anaheim).

Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com