The Oklahoma Bar Foundation and the Young Lawyers Division of the OBA for 31 years has supported the High School Mock Trial competitions. This program teaches high school students the basics of trial practice and engages them in a statewide competition.
At first expectations were low for the team, who were competing against some of the top schools in the State. Many of the Lakeside children had severe academic problems on top of their difficulties with home life and other problems. Many could not read. But starting in the second year, the team has made the second round of the competition almost every year and finished in the top quarter of all teams entered.
OBA Mock Trial Coordinator Judy Spencer said this about the program: "The OBA/OBF High School Mock Trial Program was undoubtedly the most effective educational experience that I could offer students during my 32 years of teaching. The benefits of this program appeal to all academic skill levels and learning styles. Indeed, it is a life line for many young people who are bored or disinterested in traditional academic activities, and they are amazed at their level of achievement. As a teacher coach for 10 years, I observed more intellectual and social growth in those who participated than in any other activity."
Nowhere is this growth more evident than in the Lakeside students, who learn that they don’t have to be defined by the mistakes that they had made in the past, and that their future had yet to be written.
With the active involvement of numerous Tulsa County attorneys, more than a competition, the program has most of all become a mentoring program, linking the children with positive role models, and teaching them ways to change patterns of mistakes that led to them being placed in the juvenile system. The students learn that while they may have challenges in their lives, they can overcome them with hard work and working together as a team.
Most powerfully, the students at Lakeside Home now give back to the community by speaking at Thoreau Demonstration Academy and other local schools during Law Week about the mistakes that they have made that placed them into the juvenile system, and how they hope to change their lives in the future. The team’s motto is a quote from Booker T. Washington, "I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has had to overcome while trying to succeed."
In addition to Lakeside Home, Judge Cantrell coaches his daughters' Owasso High School mock trial teams and enjoys judging the Final Round of the OBA State Competition. He sponsors a statewide "practice day" and opens Tulsa County courtrooms for teams in preparation for the event. This past year he has traveled with the Oklahoma State champions to the National Mock Trial Championship event in Philadelphia, Pa. to help coach the Oklahoma team and to judge in the competition.
"I truly believe the high school mock trial program is one of the best, if not the best, things the Oklahoma Bar Association Foundation does," said a lawyer involved with the program, a sentiment with which Judge Cantrell heartily agrees. The judge has been involved with the program since 1988.
Also read They Weren't Supposed To Win, Tulsa Business Journal - March 2007
To learn more about the Oklahoma Bar Association Mock Trial program, including watching an online six minute video, see: Oklahoma Bar Association Mock Trial program.
To volunteer as a coach or start a program at a high school, contact: OBA/YLD Mock Trial Coordinator, Judy Spencer 3812 Spyglass Road Oklahoma City, OK 73120 Fax: (405) 755-1466 Phone: (405) 755-1066 email: mocktrial@okbar.org
For any additional help or assistance,
please contact us at:
Daman.Cantrell@oscn.net
(918) 596-5390
Fax: (918) 596-5402
500 South Denver Avenue,
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103-3832
Minute Clerk
Melissa Norris 596-5392
Law Clerk/Bailiff
David Williams, J.D.
596-5393
david.williams@oscn.net