Eighth-grade students at Leading Edge Academy Maricopa will take part in a mock trial Wednesday, with doors opening at 5 p.m. and the program beginning at 5:30 p.m., according to InMaricopa. The event is open to the public.
The fictional case involves missing money from a school fundraiser. Students will fill courtroom roles including attorneys, witnesses, jurors and other participants as they put their civics lessons into practice.
The project is designed to help students build public speaking, teamwork and critical thinking skills while learning how the justice system works.
As part of their preparation, students visited the Superior Court in Florence, where a judge gave them a courthouse tour, answered questions and let them practice for the trial. They also observed juvenile dispositions and part of a murder trial to see courtroom procedures firsthand.
Civics teacher Jake-Ryan Latham said, “Seeing the justice system in action brought our classroom lessons to life in a way that a textbook or classroom discussion alone could never fully capture,” according to InMaricopa.
