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94 Temp. L. Rev. Online 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/tlro94 and id is 1 raw text is: ESSAY PROBLEMATIC PROBLEMS: THE CASE AGAINST MOCK TRIAL PROBLEMS INVOLVING RACIST SPEECH Todd A. Berger* TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 I. THE FACT PATTERN AND ITS AFTERMATH....................................................... 3 A. The Fact Pattern in D etail............................................................ 5 B . The Afterm ath ............................................................................... 7 II. RACIST SPEECH IN MOCK TRIAL PROBLEMS ................................................... 9 A. Inclusivity and Mock Trial Competitions ...................................... 9 B. The Educational Value of Racist Speech Versus the Harm......... 12 1. Advocacy Skills ........................................................................12 2. Preparing Students To Handle Trauma.....................................14 3. Constitutional Principles and Diligent Advocacy .....................15 C O N CLU SIO N ...................................................................................................... 17 INTRODUCTION On September 5, 2021, I sent a racially insensitive fact pattern to the teams participating in the Syracuse National Trial Competition (SNTC). I did not write the fact pattern. However, I was responsible for distributing the pattern to the competing teams.1 Protests, team threats to withdraw from the competition, and student-advocates' refusals to participate started immediately thereafter and persisted for several days. Recognizing the hurt caused by the pattern and its negative impact on the competition, I made the decision to withdraw the pattern and replace it with a different problem five days later. Over the course of those five days-and the weeks and months that followed-I spent a great deal of time asking myself the following question: Is there pedagogical Professor of Law and Director of Advocacy Programs at Syracuse University College of Law. A special thank you is owed to Professor Suzette Melendez, Associate Dean for Equity and Inclusion at Syracuse University College of Law, for her thoughtful comments and suggestions. An additional thank you is owed to Professors J.C. Lore, Alvaro Bellido de Luna, and Gary Pieples, as well as Tyler Jefferies and Joanne Van Dyke, for their important feedback. A thank you is owed as well to Penny Quinteros for her excellent research support. 1. The author is the pattern's copyright holder. At the time of its distribution, I was unaware of offending language used in the pattern. 1