Cahill-Mentored Brooklyn Tech Students Rank First in City and Second in State in Mock Trial Competitions
Date: 05/15/18
A team of Cahill coaches mentored Brooklyn Technical High School students to a first-place finish in a city-wide mock trial competition presided over by S.D.N.Y. Judge Richard Sullivan on April 30. The students then went on to a second-place finish in the subsequent state-wide finals hosted in Albany on May 13-15, with the final round presided over by N.D.N.Y. Judge Mae D’Agostino. Approximately four hundred high schools participate state-wide.
The case being argued was People v. Carson Conners. Conners, an at-risk student at Bigtown High School, reportedly pushed another student, loudly refused to go to the Assistant Principal’s office when told to do so, and was subsequently suspended, arrested, and charged with disorderly conduct. Among the issues involved in the case were the effect of disciplinary policies that the defense argued amounted to a “school to prison pipeline” used to keep low-performing students from participating in districtwide assessment tests. The Brooklyn Tech team represented both sides of the case throughout the rounds of the competition, beating Hunter College High School in the city finals, and facing Goshen High School in the state finals, where they ultimately came in second place state-wide.
The Cahill coaches included: Joel Kurtzberg, Ian Kalish, Benjamin Taylor, and Ivan Torres, who generously donated their time to help the students prepare. Cahill has partnered with Brooklyn Tech High School’s mock trial team for over 20 years.