Disclaimer: The author is a member of the Franklin Law Program.
During the 2023-2024 school year, numerous individuals, teams, and clubs at Franklin High School have made vast achievements. Franklin’s law program is a prime example; this year in particular, the students, coaches, and teachers have made immense achievements. Mock Trial’s Maroon team advanced to the state competition, and one policy debate duo advanced to two national debate competitions.
The Franklin Law program consists of after-school opportunities and three elective courses: Intro to Law, Mock Trial, and Advanced Mock Trial. Both Intro to Law and Mock Trial can be taken at any grade level with no prerequisite, however students must complete Mock Trial to enroll in Advanced Mock Trial.
In these classes, students learn about the United States legal system, study historically important court cases, and practice various debate and public speaking formats. In mock trial courses, students expand their knowledge of the law by joining a competition team. On these teams, they take on the role of either an attorney or witness in a criminal or civil case created by the Civics Learning Project. These cases are often based on real cases, however, evidence and information about witnesses are often altered. This year’s competition teams focused on a criminal case in which a pilot was accused of obstruction of justice for lying about the events leading up to their plane crashing.
Competition teams typically meet once a week from September to March. There, they work with Law Program Teacher Brian Halberg, fellow team members, and professional lawyers who coach them to formulate theories for both the prosecution and defense sides of the case. Students also play the role of attorneys who are responsible for writing specific, direct, or cross-examination questions as well as their opening or closing speeches. Students acting as witnesses must memorize their affidavits and practice answering questions.
During the season, teams work to achieve a top-three spot at the regionals competition which guarantees them a chance to impress at the state competition. One of the three varsity teams competing this year; the Maroon team, qualified for and attended the Oregon High School Mock Trial State Competition on March 16 and 17, 2024. This is the second year in a row that the Maroon team has qualified for the state competition; last year they placed fifth.
Phebe Doukas is a senior at Franklin and one of the captains of the Maroon team. Doukas explained that over the last three years, she has enjoyed “learn[ing] all about rules and objections,” as well as exploring the various roles on each team. In preparation for the state competition, the Maroon team met three to four times a week for two to three hours each. These meetings consisted of team members “going over rules [and] making sure everyone [had] memorized all the direct and cross [examinations],” Doukas shared.
Maroon captain Abby Curley, a senior at Franklin, explained that while the team did succeed at regionals, they had faced disappointment in their first competition. They were “the only team that didn’t win any awards,” she stated. But this loss made the team more passionate to improve. Curley shared that with this passion, they pulled it together for regionals where they placed in the top three and advanced to the state competition.
Maroon’s progress from losing at the beginning of the season to securing a win reinforces Curley’s sentiment that “hard work really does pay off.” She advised others to join the law program. “Mock trial is a great way to meet new people [and] it’s just so fun,” said Curley.
Before competing, both Curley and Doukas expressed their immense excitement for the state competition and hopes for the outcome. After two days and four rounds, the ballots revealed that Maroon had placed eighth at state. Maroon team member Ginger Fahey, a junior at Franklin, explained that the team was “tied for third [place] going into the final round, but ended up placing in the top ten.” Fahey expressed her pride for the team’s efforts leading up to and at the competition. She also shared her excitement for the season next year and for “of course crushing West Linn,” who took two of the top-three spots at the competition. Additionally, she expressed her hope of “going to Nationals.”
While the mock trial side of Franklin’s law program is gaining recognition by placing in the top ten at the state competition, the debate program is headed to not one, but two national competitions. The debate duo headed to both includes Francesca Silverstein and Luke Susswood, who are both juniors and co-captains of the debate club.
This duo competes in policy debate, which is a form of debate in which teams advocate for or against a resolution that calls for a policy change by the United States government. In policy debate there is only one topic for the whole year; “this year we are primarily debating fiscal redistribution, which is divided into three topic areas: basic income, federal jobs guarantee, and social security expansion,” Susswood explained.
Over the season, Susswood and Silverstein have competed in seven tournaments, winning six of them. “We’ve qualified twice for nationals,” Susswood described, referring to the duo’s advancement to both the Urban Debate League Nationals competition and the National Speech and Debate Association Nationals competition. “[It] is really cool … we’ll be competing in Chicago, [Illinois], and we also have the privilege of competing in Des Moines, [Iowa].” Susswood went on to say, “I’m so honored to be able to go on this trip especially with Halberg and Mallory [the Franklin policy debate coach] taking the time to plan this for us.”
At debate practices, the captains facilitate speaking drills and award “speaker of the week” to the debater who logs the most minutes doing speaking drills. “[We] practice speeches, pull answers to things other teams may attack us with, and prepare attacks on other teams,” Silverstein explained. Additionally, Silverstein and Susswood prepare by planning topic lectures and meetings with past debaters and current coaches in order to gain more insight into “how to win tournaments with teams you’ve never gone [up] against and how to win rounds with judges you’ve never seen before,” Susswood added.
Silverstein, who has been debating for two years, shared that her favorite part of debate is “getting out of my comfort zone and doing something I genuinely find challenging.” She believes that attending two national competitions will boost her confidence in her abilities despite self-doubt arising “in male-dominated spaces.” She continued to say, “When I remain calm and sure of my abilities I perform my best.”
As Silverstein expressed, being a debate captain also gives her the chance to “support other students in their debate journey” and help herself and others gain real-world skills from debate. A few examples of these skills are public speaking, collaboration, research, knowledge of current events and policies, and understanding the importance of current issues and events. Similarly, Susswood believes that policy debate “teaches students not only about important issues, but [about] being open to exploring different solutions to important issues and acting as a policy maker.”
In only the second year of the program’s existence, Franklin’s debate program has opened up numerous opportunities for students to gain knowledge about the law and develop argumentative skills. In the coming weeks, Silverstein and Susswood will finish the rest of the regular season and continue to prepare for their national competitions which will occur on April 11 to 14 and June 16 to 21.
Halberg, who also serves as a coach for the debate and mock trial teams, started the after-school debate club at Franklin during the 2022-2023 school year. He has been coaching debaters for 19 years and mock trial students for roughly 16 years. Regardless of the outcome at the end of each competition, “the most important goal we would want [is for the students] to have an enjoyable experience [and] find a way to work with and support each other,” he explained. As the law program continues to expand and create new opportunities, Halberg shared his excitement for next year and “getting a chance to support all of [the] incredible law [program] students and what we do here.”
