It was quite a change of pace for about 100 students from a variety of classes and departments at Mid-State Technical College, taking time out of the classroom to have their day in court with their 2nd annual mock trial.

For their exercise, they used a civil case of a teen fatally wounded when he and some friends decided to play Russian roulette with a parent's gun.

Students were broken into groups, from attorneys, to jurors, to news reporters, to see what goes into a serious trial, while in a more laid-back setting "The kids worked so hard and were so dedicated and they dealt with a very serious issue”, said Portage County District Attorney Tom Eagon. “But it was a mock trial and not a real one, so you can enjoy the twists and turns a trial sometimes takes."

And even though the jurors, attorneys and witnesses aren't real, those involved say the experience they gained certainly is. “The idea is to get them out of the classroom”, said Suzanne Rathe, Instructor of Social Science at Mid-State Technical College. “Then we provide an opportunity for them where they can see some real world experience and practice in that.”

The day of hearings and jury deliberations was broken up with three segments of newspaper, radio, and television news reports.