Court is in session. Two tenth grade English classes transformed a classroom into a courtroom on April 16, and turned from students to defense attorneys, judges, and witnesses for one period.
    English teachers, Mr. Brian Fitzgerald and Mrs. Kathryn Cox, collaborated for their first in-class mock trial based on the book, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. Each student was assigned a character by drawing out of a hat. Students used their knowledge of the book and characters, creativity, and confidence to embrace whichever role they picked.
   Simms said, “All of them were excited about it, because it’s different than what we usually do.”
    In the book, main character Gene Forrester and his best friend Finny are roommates in a North Hampshire boarding school during World War II. Gene admires Finny, but is also jealous. Gene becomes responsible for Finny’s crippling accident where he falls out of a tree and is unable to compete in sports.
    The trial is held to figure out if Gene’s behavior at school is enough for expulsion along with his previous actions. Using the code of ethics, they must decide what should happen to Gene. Principal Ed Herbold and Vice Principal Ed Stevens were issued “subpoenas” and sat in as judges to watch and to help deliberate.
    Ultimately, the verdict in Coxs’ class was that Gene should be given suspension and counseling, but not expulsion, for there was little evidence against him. And in Fitzgerald’s class, Gene was issued expulsion for breaking the code of ethics.
    Defense attorney Barrett Otte said, “It was pretty cool. We got to voice our opinions and we had some pretty good arguments.”
    Fitzgerald said, “It went really well for the first time I taught this. If I do it next year, I’ll have more preparation. With a few tweaks it could get really good. It’s a creative, fun way to express student’s knowledge of the novel.”
    Defense attorney Richie Greene said, “I definitely got more out of it than taking a test.”