2003 YMCA Mock Trial

Special Considerations

About Gender

This case creates a difficult gender issue, for which there is no easy solution. Mock trial cases are preferably written to be gender-neutral, so that males or females can assume the role of any character without affecting the integrity or realism of the case or the trial. But this case is a little different.

It would be extremely unusual for the incident portrayed in this case to have occurred in a co-ed soccer game. First, there are no co-ed leagues in existence anywhere in the world where aggressive, physical soccer is played. Second, the rules of co-ed soccer specifically prohibit most physical contact between players of opposite sex. That fact alone might weight this case too heavily in favor of the prosecution. That is, if the foul involved in this case were committed in a co-ed game, under co-ed rules, the foul would be so far outside the rules of the game that a criminal conviction would be more easily obtained. So, the game needs to be played by teams of the same gender (it does not matter which) or, at a bare minimum, the characters of Alex Chavez and Taylor Garrison need to be the same gender.

To bring this about in the mock trial courtroom, consideration was given to various complex arrangements. These involved expanded team rosters and last minute determinations as to which gender would be used in a given trial. Besides causing a certain amount of upheaval, this would have the undesirable effect of reducing the participation of some students.

Ultimately, it was decided that the simplest approach was best; that is, to simply ignore gender altogether. Each witness should testify as if the game were played by teams of the same gender and that the applicable rules are those provided with the case materials.

One more word about gender is in order. In drafting the Declarations we tried to catch all of the he, she, him, her pronouns and change them to "s/he" and "him/her" and "himself/herself." If we missed any that refer specifically to a witness, we apologize. You should assume that it was overlooked and you should make the necessary correction. However, the reference may not be a mistake when we refer to a non-character, e.g. Quinn Carpenter's father, Sgt. Jerry Carpenter. As stated, all witnesses may be portrayed as males or females.

About the Pretrial Declaration of Quinn Carpenter

We wish to make it clear that the declaration of Quinn Carpenter was introduced only for purposes of creating the pre-trial motion. Quinn is not a character in this case, and his/her declaration may not be used for any purpose during the actual trial. If the court denies the motion to suppress, thereby making the journal entries available for admission into evidence, Taylor Garrison's declaration contains some addition material that can be used by his/her defense team to ameliorate the effect of the damage to him/her, if any, that is created by admitting the journal entries.