Seniors Sydney Vogelgesang, Kirsten McCoy, Danny Kamm, Henry Klatt, Jon Janke, Sarah Penn, Jami Anderson, Afton Patton, Raygen Brand, and Cooper England participated in this years Mock Trial Conference at NIACC. Here, students played both the defense team, prosecution, and witnesses in the case of a murder of an elderly woman which led to the burning down of the resident’s house. The defense team ended up getting their client off of all charges of murder and vandalism, despite the immense amount of evidence stacked against them..
This year’s outstanding lawyer from the conference went to Mason City High School senior Sydney Vogelgesang, who plans on going to Law school at Drake University. Danny Kamm, a senior, who spoke the closing argument for the defense, stated, “It was a learning experience for all of us, especially with learning all of the little details that go into the courtroom”. Kamm is also planning to go into law school. Dan Ramaeker, the director of the newly revived group, commented,”I was really surprised on how much all of the students learned, and it’s something that they will definitely use in their lifetime”.
Very Recently, students of the criminology classes have been assigned a fictitious four-homicide case that deals with a blunt force, gunshot, and stabbing scenario. Students will be assigned different jobs as they investigate the crime scene along with interrogating teachers across the high school for more information about the crime. The led investigators of this years case are Michael Zimmerman, Carly Paulsen, Danny Kamm, and Caleb Lillquist, who will be in charge of writing up search warrants along assigning roles to peers to lead both criminology classes to a successful investigation.