Feehan Mock Trial Brings the Gavel Down on Another Season
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Front row (kneeling): Kevin Kane, Brendan Horrocks, Ian Ross, Michael Castro, Naman Madan. Standing: Christine Schremp, Matthew D’Ambrosia, Alexander Khabbaz, Cassandra Schifman, Ryan Hutchins, Sean Gray, Jordan Khabbaz, Christopher DaVeiga (captain), Krystal Gladu, Shane Sullivan, Henry Wunderlich, Dominic Mazza (captain), Sarah Wiik, Jack Keenan, Elizabeth Riley, Kira Hellard.
??Each year the Massachusetts Bar Association in connection with the Massachusetts Bar Foundation sponsors the Mock Trial Program, giving high school students a chance to participate in a ???mock trial???. Its purpose is to improve the critical thinking, analytical and rhetorical skills of the students as well as to give them a positive legal experience.
The Bishop Feehan Mock Trial team participated in a new format this year, expanding from sixteen regions to thirty-two regions, including 132 teams.?? Feehan won Region 4 with victories over Oliver Ames, Bridgewater-Raynham, and Bishop Stang. They then went on to regional competition at Clark University in Worcester where they defeated the Performing & Fine Arts High School from Lawrence in the morning trial and Newton South High School in the afternoon. Bishop Feehan made it to the ???Elite 8??? where they were ultimately defeated by Canton High School at the Worcester County Judicial Center with a score of 104-102.??
?????The team was led by four outstanding seniors ??? Elizabeth Riley, Krystal Gladu, Christopher DaVeiga, and Dominic Mazza,??? commented Feehan’s Mock Trial moderator and guidance counselor, Pat O’Boy. ???These kids are incredible.?? I couldn???t ask for a better group of students. They did such an amazing job.???
??This year???s case was a medical malpractice: a young freshman, one of the most sought after high school soccer players in the country, scored the winning goal during the first spring game of the season in 2011 and then collapsed on the field. A cardiac surgeon attending the game rushed onto the field and took charge of the situation. The young person was rushed into surgery for a defective aortic valve. The surgery was successful, but the young person was told that he/she would never play soccer again. It was a small price to pay for staying alive. In May of 2014 while shooting hops with friends, the pain returned. The young person was again rushed to the hospital where it was discovered that he/she had more than one problem in 2011. He/she had tumors in both lungs ??? cancer, osteosarcoma. In his haste to rush the young person into surgery, had the surgeon missed a 5-7 mm mass of uncertain origin in the patient???s right lung? Was it the fault of the cardiac surgeon or the radiologist who possibly failed to tell the surgeon?