AGL's Legal Eagles Dominate The Competition
By Rory P. Mondshein

For a fourth consecutive year, the AGL Law Team competed in the citywide Mentor Moot Court competition at Fordham Law School. Our "Legal Eagles" were one of seventy five schools that studied a fictitious case under the auspices of doting coaches as well as mentoring law firms. Each year, four students from each team are chosen to represent either the Petitioner or the Respondent and argue a ten minute piece in front of a panel of judges using precedent court cases and convincing arguments to corroborate their arguments.

Since September, the AGL Law Team has worked diligently with Coach, Mr. Schuman, and the Law Firm, Dewey and LeBoeuf, on this year's case which asked: "Do students have the same constitutional rights in school?" The case was about a seventeen year old high school student named Alex Perri who was searched after the school believed he had violated its "Personal Pollution Policy" by drinking banned caffeinated substances. The case also centers around freedom of speech and how this student (Alex Perri) created a parody facebook profile of his principal that represented his opposition to the policy. The first part of the case examined students' fourth amendment rights and whether or not schools have a right to search their students, as well as what constitutes a "reasonable" search. Part two dealt with freedom of speech and whether or not speech that is created outside of school can be regulated under the first amendment.

For the past nine weeks, Coach Schuman worked closely with the following students: Rory P. Mondshein, Faybeyon Robinson, Rhonnasia Richardson, CelAsia Griffin-Brown, Kimberly Belgrave, Jahmaal Gayle, Illys Lamarque, Serena Rodriguez, Jeantiel Llanos, Hadiyyah Thomas, Richard Charles, Catrina Young, Katelynne Bazile, Julia Ramirez, and Jelvon Holt. The Coach, along with Attorneys Chris Clark and Joseph Murphy, prepared the team by teaching them how to write legal briefs as well as practice basic public speaking skills. The team members spent a great deal of time practicing how to appear confident in front of an audience by playing improvisational games that helped determine who the competing four would be.
Eventually, Coach Schuman chose Sophomores, Richard Charles and Illys Lamarque, to represent the Petitioners, Paul Capozzi and the Treanor County School District, and Junior, Rhonnasia Richardson, and senior, Rory P. Mondshein, to represent the Respondent. But Mr. Schuman embedded more knowledge into these four students' minds than just case law: he taught them that knowing how to improvise was as important as knowing the script. Little did he know how prophetic those words would be.

On Tuesday, November 17th, the team, accompanied by Coach Schuman and teacher, Ms. Covich, went to Fordham Law School to compete in the 2009 Mentor Moot Court Competition. However, the team ran into a predicament when one of the main speakers, Richard Charles, did not show up. The team punted for a few minutes: wondering if they should forfeit or have someone take his place. During this moment of uncertainty, the team showed their strength when Faybeyon Robinson decided to valiantly take Charles' place and deliver his speech. Within a few minutes, the team pulled itself together spectacularly, and spent their time working to help Faybeyon master his argument.

When it came time to compete against Murray Burgtraum High School for Business Communications in Round One, the impressive teamwork paid off. Robinson delivered a convincing argument, alongside co-attorney Illys Lamarque, who supported his argument as to why the courts should overturn the Court of Appeals' decision and rule that schools have the right to search and regulate students. Both members spoke with amazing conviction and showed an incredible example of teamwork. In fact, even the judges gave both students strong feedback at the end of the round, and complemented them on their "impressive teamwork, ability to cite cases, ability to respond effectively to questions, as well as argue with poise.”

In Round Two, the Respondents had their chance to argue against Susan B. Wagner. Rhonnasia Richardson and Rory P, Mondshein presented clear arguments as to why students "do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate." Both members fed off the theme that "emotions played a huge role in the case and that the administrator's personal feelings towards Alex Perri caused the school to act the way that it did". Richardson and Mondshein presented great evidence, spoke clearly and eloquently, and responded effectively to questions.

After the competition, everyone was all smiles, even if the team nervously awaited their fate in the competition. They had placed third. In fact, the team was a mere 1.5 points away from advancing to the next round, which has never been done in AGL history before. As Catrina Young, a freshman on the team, said, "We competed really good, [sic] but the first round could have been better. The team argued really well and their arguments truly showed their mastery of the skills needed."

Even though the team did not advance, they were still superstars in the AGL community. When team members came back to collect their work, they were greeted by curious students and staff, who expressed their extreme gratitude to the team for being such exemplars to the school. The proud Principal, Mr. Glasner, had nothing but positive things to say about the Law Team: "It is fantastic that the Law Team continues to be a thriving asset to AGL. I love that the team outshines so many other schools in the city."
So, where will the Law Team go next… Stay tuned!