PERRYSBURG COURT EXPLORERS GOING TO COURT

 

January 25, 2008 – Perrysburg, Ohio – The Perrysburg Court Law & Government Explorer Post is sending three teams to the mock trial district competition scheduled for Friday, February 1, 2008, in the Bowling Green courtrooms of the Wood County Common Pleas Court.  The Perrysburg Explorers are matched against teams from Penta County and Edison High School.  Members of the Wood County Bar Association volunteer as judges for this event.

 

 The Ohio Mock Trial Program, established by the Ohio Center for Law-Related Education (OCLRE) in 1983, is a statewide educational program designed to allow students to become aware of their constitutional rights and responsibilities.  It provides students the opportunity to learn first hand about the law, court procedures and the judicial system while also building interpretation, critical thinking and public speaking skills.  Students who compete in the Mock Trial program come away with a greater understanding of not only the principals our legal system is founded on but also of themselves and the skills they possess.

The 2008 Ohio High School Mock Trial competition concerns a clash between a church's free exercise of religion and a city's desire to prevent a public nuisance.  In this case, a church is attempting to carry out its religious mission by allowing homeless persons to camp on church property.  But due to concerns related to crime and the public health, the city has begun dispersing the homeless persons from the church grounds.  The church filed a lawsuit against the city, seeking an injunction that would prevent the city from dispersing the homeless persons whom the church allows to live on its property.  The church argues that the city's actions unconstitutionally burden the church's free exercise of religion, as guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution.