ATLANTA --- The dozens of mock murder trials held in Atlanta's main courthouse Friday were punctuated with stubborn witnesses, compelling arguments and back-and-forths from high school students.
But the competition was underpinned by a real-life legal drama after an Orthodox Jewish school filed a discrimination complaint over the competition's schedule.
The Maimonides School, an Orthodox Jewish school in Brookline, Mass., has long planned to compete in the National High School Mock Trial Championship in Atlanta this weekend. But a key part of the competition is held today, and the students don't compete on the Sabbath.
The event's organizers rebuffed the school's attempts to tweak the schedule to accommodate the students' religious needs, so team members' parents hired an attorney to file a religious discrimination complaint to the Justice Department.
The fight heightened after a board member of the state Bar of Georgia resigned over the controversy and Fulton County's chief judge threatened to block the event from taking place in the downtown Atlanta courthouse unless the schedule was changed. The mock trial's organizers begrudgingly relented Thursday, saying the decision forced organizers to choose between canceling the competition or adhering to "an unreasonable request."
For the school's leaders, the outside-the-courtroom arguments provided a compelling legal lesson for the students.
"It was always our hope that an organization attuned to the law would be sympathetic to the constitutional rights of the students," said Rabbi Roy Rosenbaum, the team's faculty adviser. "We weren't asking for preferential treatment."
The rabbi said school leaders tried to persuade organizers to tweak the schedule after Maimonides won the Massachusetts state title in March. He said filing the discrimination complaint was a last resort.
When the organizers didn't budge, the Anti-Defamation League fired off a letter warning that the organization's refusal could "tarnish the reputation and standing of the entire competition."
Elizabeth Price resigned from the board of the state Bar of Georgia out of frustration the bar wasn't doing enough to pressure the mock trial's organizers. The final straw came late Wednesday when Chief Fulton County Superior Court Judge Doris Downs threatened to ban the event from the courthouse if the schedule wasn't changed.
The scheduling tweak allowed the students from Maimonides to participate in one mock trial Thursday night and three more throughout a busy Friday. If the team reaches the championships, the organizers have agreed to push the final competition well past sundown tonight.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
