I was recently involved in our school’s Mock Trial Team. We faced a lot of challenges this year: a new advisor, a new principal, the never-ending need to recruit. But we made it through—and we were good. Yet we’ve never won a round…ever.

In the three years I’ve been doing mock trial, I’ve seen our school progress. We were always decent, but the past two years have been amazing. In fact, all three years, one of the attorneys has won an award: “Best Overall Attorney.” To me, what the judges are telling us is “You have the best attorneys in the competition, but you can never win” because that’s what it seems like.

Why is this? Because we’re Alisal High School. And I’m not using it as an excuse—in fact; it hurts me to say that it’s true. In my three years competing, I’ve seen the bias first hand. We’ve been more prepared, more experienced, more precise, yet we always come up short. I wasn’t expecting to win a state championship, but one round in three years would’ve been nice.

After seeing the score sheets, I was even more appalled. There were instances in which one of our fabulous pretrial attorneys, Maria King, received the same score as a first timer who had a bad argument which wasn’t even memorized. Our scores were even with this new school until the end. Our hot shot Prosecution Attorney, Armando Cortez, received a below average score (2), while the Defense team’s rattled attorney received an excellent (5) while staring at her binder the whole time. And because of this, we lost. As speculative as it sounds, I believe they realized we were going to be close to winning, so they fixed it at the end. That sounds horrible, doesn’t it? I can’t help but believe it.

When I went up against the infamous Palma as the sole defense attorney, I held my own fairly well. I got their witnesses shaken and their attorneys confused. I was proud of myself. But when the scorers said, “The prosecution had fabulous witnesses,” I knew we were defeated. One of the scorers even told me that I hurt my chances by facing Palma alone. I disagree completely. First, you can only get so many students involved, so it wasn’t really my fault, and second, I stood my ground and did fine without other people sitting next to me.

This bias has to stop. It’s pathetic, and I’m sick of it. So, Alisal underclassmen, I’m expecting you to come back next year, better than ever. Show all the other schools that not only do we deserve to win, but that we always have. Make them unable to ignore our talent and hard work. Teachers, go watch your students. It does make a difference. When York has three full benches of spectators, I’m expecting you all to match that, and seem just as interested. Mr. Low, you rock. Please return next year and help Alisal win with vengeance. Lastly, fellow Mock Trial Participants, good job. I’m really proud of all of you. I can’t wait to come back and see you win. I’m counting on you to break this unjust losing streak.