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National Mock Trial Championship Places Asterisks On Standings of Rescheduled Teams

By Howard M. Friedman

As previously reported, the National High School Mock Trial Competition last weekend, under intense pressure, agreed to reschedule certain rounds for Maimonides High School of Brookline, Massachusetts in order to accommodate the Sabbath observance of Jewish students from the school. Yesterday JTA reported that Maimonides won two and lost two trials. The official 2009 Championship Results on the national sponsor's website lists Maimonides as tying for 20th place with Hampden Academy of Maine-- both with asterisks after their entries. The footnote to the standings says: "20th place awarded to Massachusetts and Maine due to deviation from typical team advancement and progressive power-matching." In addition, Georgia's Decatur High School is listed as unranked with this note: "Georgia Decatur High School could only compete in two rounds to accommodate a deviation in the competition schedule, so the team is not ranked." It is unclear whether the footnotes for Maine and Georgia result from their being paired out-of-turn with Maimonides, or relate to different scheduling changes. JTA reports that other teams at the competition were very supportive of the schedule modification granted to Maimonides. [Thanks to Joel Katz (Relig. & State In Israel) for the lead.]

Full post as published by Religion Clause on May 13, 2009 (boomark / email).