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A new adviser will guide Hills-Beaver Creek students as the 2020 Minnesota High School Mock Trial season gets underway this week.
Megan Klumper is a fifth-year teacher at H-BC High School with 15 years of classroom experience. She currently instructs secondary English classes.
Advising the 16-member Mock Trial team is Klumper’s first extra-curricular assignment and she stepped forward for the students.
“Some students who are in Mock Trial are not in other extracurriculars,” she said. “When the previous coach said she was retiring, I knew that H-BC had to keep Mock Trial going for those students.”
For decades, H-BC business manager Glenda Kuehl coached the team. Last year she advised two teams. Kuehl retired in October.
“(Kuehl) is always available for questions as well as our volunteer attorney Randy Sample, who has been to most meetings to give advice,” Klumper said. “The students have done a wonderful job helping me learn.”
H-BC competed in the first of four regular season Mock Trial events Monday with a contest against Lakeview High School.
The Minnesota Bar Association organizes the high school program and selects the topic and the mock trial for each season.
This season’s topic is the opioid epidemic and, specifically, the state of Minnesota charging Sam Soto with third-degree murder. The state said Soto was responsible in the opioid overdose death of Brandon Weber, who attended a party Soto hosted.
Twelve students make up a mock trial team that includes the three-member prosecution and defense attorney teams and the three prosecution and defense witness teams.
H-BC’s prosecution attorney team is senior Bryn Mongeau, juniors Jacob Sheppard and Shayla Rainford.
The defense attorney team members are juniors Allie LaRock and Abby Knobloch and freshman Leif Tollefson.
Prosecution witnesses are freshmen Lexi Drake, Jenifer Martinyuk and Britton Mckenzie.
Defense witnesses are juniors Hannah Fick, Mikael Mess and Lauren Tatge.
Team alternates are juniors Erika Dysthe and Thomas Dysthe, sophomore Taylor Durst and freshman Carter Abels.
H-BC competes in Region 4, which includes teams from Luverne, Springfield and two from Lakeview.
H-BC’s competition schedule is as follows:
•A bye for the week of Jan. 13.
•H-BC prosecution versus Lakeview Jan. 24.
•H-BC defense versus Lakeview White Feb. 4.
The top two teams from Region 4 go head-to-head during the week of Feb. 10 for a trip to the state tournament March 5-6 in St. Paul.
The MBA has organized the law-related education program for high school students since 1986.
The program introduces students to the American legal system and provides a challenging opportunity for personal growth and achievement.