Mock Courtroom Built At Woodland Hills H.S.

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - Baseball players take batting practice before the game. Football players go through two-a-days before the season. What do members of a mock trial team do to prepare?

The answer is simple for one local high school.

Woodland Hills now has a courtroom in a classroom.

"It would have been really nice to have this. I think we are really excited about this because it is such an opportunity for the kids to use the space and be comfortable in the sort of more intimidating environment that a courtroom can sometimes be," Team Advisor Jamie Glasser said.

The mock courtroom was built for the mock trial team. Members of the Carpenters Union built it and the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office backed it.

"These kids are proud of who they are and it's cool to be smart. They are actually role models here and we are doing this in Clairton and in a bunch of other schools," Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala said.

Woodland Hills has a long history of success in mock trial competitions, even though they often had to heavily rely on their imagination during practice.

"We just have tables and some folding chairs and we had to make sure, 'Oh, you can't walk there because there's no space there or you can't walk there because the jury's there.' But, to have it laid out like this in such a nice and neat and fantastic way is awesome," Maggie Baker, a senior, said.

Walking down the hall of Woodland Hills High School, you come to Room 100. When you walk inside, it looks just like a courtroom.

The students on the team hope it helps them to be judged best in state.

"We have a lot of returning members so it's just going to be -- we have the team. We just have to decide who is going to do what and we just have to perfect ourselves," Vincent LeDonne said.

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