Tamalpais High School Wins Marin County Mock Trial Competition

MILL VALLEY, CA — The Tamalpais High School team claimed the championship title at the 2020 Marin County Mock Trial Competition at the Marin County Courthouse.

The win marks the 25th consecutive year that Tamalpais High has won the county title. This year's team was led by attorney coach Molly Alarcon and alumni coach Mark Hill.

More than 150 students from eight Marin high schools participated in the two-day competition on Jan. 25 and Feb. 1. Participating schools included Marin Academy, Marin Catholic, Redwood, San Marin, San Rafael, Sir Francis Drake, Tamalpais and Terra Linda.

Each year the Constitutional Rights Foundation creates a Mock Trial case for students across the state. The case provides students an opportunity to wrestle with large societal problems within a structured forum and strives to provide an enriching educational experience.

This year's case, the People v. Matsumoto, is the trial of Bailey Matsumoto, the founder of a technology start-up that develops self-driving trucks. Bailey is charged with the murder of his spouse, Taylor Matsumoto.

Each team of students prepared both the prosecution and defense positions for the case.

For more than 20 years, the Marin County Office of Education has coordinated the competition with financial support and industry partnership from the Marin County Bar Association. Through the partnership, volunteer attorneys and judges oversee scoring and judging teams.

More than 20 attorneys worked with the school teams since September 2019. Each
team's teacher coach or sponsor also volunteered to work with the students in
preparing for the competition.

Tamalpais High will represent the county at the State Mock Trial Competition March 20-22 in Los Angeles.