This past few months have been a successful run for the Porter High School Mock Trial Team. If you’re not aware of what Mock Trial is I’ll break it down; the high school Mock Trial competition is a law-based program under the Dallas Bar Association.  High school students receive a “mock” case which they are able to prepare to start on October 1. Each student is then assigned a role, which could either be a witness or a lawyer. They then compete against another team and the round is picked by judges, each school will either be the defense or the prosecution. The students will then perform a round almost identical to what a real court trial looks like. 

On January 26, 2023, Porter High School went against Montgomery High School for the region rounds. After 2 rounds, one prosecution and one defense, the teams were informed they must perform a third round in order to determine which of the two schools will be able to advance to state. And after a strong defense round, Porter beat out Montgomery and advanced to state! Along with this joyous win, Porter’s Coral Newsome and Noah Hawver received the best advocate and best witness awards.

In early February the Porter High School Mock Trial Team proceeded to have a scrimmage via zoom against the British International School of Houston. There was only one round conducted and Porter was on the prosecution side, and at the end of the round, it was determined that Porter had won once again. 

And just last week, March 3-4, Porter Mock Trial traveled to Dallas where they would compete against the top 24 schools in the state of Texas. This is Porter’s 3rd consecutive year competing at the state level. And after 4 long rounds, hard work, and stress, Porter came out 14th place. That is 14 out of the 150 schools that try for Mock Trial in the state of Texas, the results were a 2-2 and with a vast amount of improvement from the past year. Coral Newsome was nominated for best advocate amongst the whole competition and won; best advocate for all 4 rounds. Noah Hawver received 3 best witnesses, and Patricia Piampratcha received; 1 best witness award.