Moot court in New York City offers lessons in civics : NPR

“Your honors, may I begin?” Magda Khedr clears her throat and addresses the court.

After a quick nod from one of the three judges, the prosecutor begins her argument. “We assert that the search of Carmen Bundy’s phone,” Khedr said, “was a flagrant violation of her Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.”

So begins a daylong trial in New York. But in this case, the prosecutor is a high school student from Staten Island. It’s all part of an annual moot court competition, and students from more than 30 high schools across the city have been researching and preparing their cases for weeks.

The judges are law students at Fordham University, and their decision will not carry the weight of law, but rather an important lesson about how government works.

For many young people, the justice system is a black box: they know what goes in and what goes out, but few know what happens in the room where it happens. This program – now in its 41st year – seeks to change that as part of a citywide civic education program.

The case that Khedr, who attends Susan E. Wagner High School, is pursuing is a fictional incident involving a high school student involved in a prank incident. The student is then summoned to the vice principal’s office for questioning. Inside the room, the school resource officer searches her phone, but does not read her Miranda rights.

Khedr argues that the search was illegal, while Brianna Mojica, a high school law, advocacy and community justice student from New York, says the meeting wasn’t really an interrogation.

“Just because a school resource officer who is a certified law enforcement officer is present does not mean the interrogation is custodial,” Mojica said in his opening statement. “In the same way that the presence of a priest does not transform a gathering into a religious service.”

A national spotlight on civic education

Civics education is a topic long considered bipartisan. However, President Trump has recently made waves by criticizing current teaching methods and pledging to change the system. In September, the administration announced a new coalition of conservative groups to oversee an overhaul of civic education ahead of the country’s 250th anniversary.

The department’s statement said the initiative “aims to renew patriotism, strengthen civic knowledge, and advance a shared understanding of America’s founding principles in schools across the country.”

The administration focuses on national test results, derived from the assessment known as the Bulletin of the Nationshow that the civics scores of eighth graders in the United States have been declining since 2014. All this at a time when concerns about the polarization of society and the erosion of democratic principles have increased.

Louise Dubé, CEO of iCivics, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on civic education, says civic education is not just about government, history or social studies, but a bit of all three. More than anything, she says, it’s a skill set.

“In a democracy, disagreements are ingrained,” she says. “So what we’re looking for is skills to speak courteously to people that you disagree with in order to try to resolve problems.”

It begins with an understanding of concepts, including the three branches of government, the checks and balances on power, and the philosophy behind the founding of the nation. iCivics, founded by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor after her retirement from the Supreme Court, offers free educational materials to help students understand democracy and develop the skills needed to participate in it.

The idea is to help students “feel part of the community,” Dubé explains. “Understand service to your neighbor, to your community, to your country and value that as part of who you are.”

“We want all of our students to have a basic understanding of government, right? said Michael Seif, senior program manager at the Justice Resource Center, the nonprofit organization that oversees Fordham’s moot court competition and other civic programs in the city.

“We want students to understand the importance of oral advocacy, to be able to examine issues related to law and civics analytically and critically, and to be able to apply them in their lives.”

Confident and informed citizens

For the students participating in the month-long competition, the real-world experience was much more interesting than a lecture. Law student judges do not rule one way or the other in cases, but they do offer feedback to students and give them scores to see if they are progressing in the competition.

The judges all mentioned the confidence and preparation of both students, but Mojica received a special mention. “We all talked about it at our conference,” said Emily Knight, one of the judges and a third-year law student at Fordham. “The analogy you had with the priest was brilliant.”

Knight says all students should be proud of themselves: “It’s so impressive. I definitely wasn’t in a position to do something like this in high school.”

Wagner High School social studies teacher Marla Kleinman helped Magda Khedr and the prosecutor’s team prepare for the morning’s proceedings. She says making students feel empowered to express themselves is an important part of their school’s civics program.

Regardless of the topic, she reminds her students, “It’s good to challenge ideas, not people.” »