Mock Trial, cont.

“And then those people [...] form a support team [and] help you run all of your things, [...] which is really, really helpful.”

A key part of practice was getting through “checkboxes” that designate what one needs to do in preparation for a trial. “We do this thing called checkboxes, which is this huge, huge list of things that we should do. So like, memorize your character, read your witness statement or work that we’ve done has either bought into time organization, travel logistics, working with different parents who help the team and, in general, just trying to keep a group of people working together,” Bush said.

MMT requires a hefty time commitment from students. “We have a lot of tournaments over the weekend. Sometimes it would take up like 15-20 hours of a weekend, like back-to-back weekends [and] really, really intense preparation. We have weekly practices morning is usually where we see the struggle.”

According to Silver, the school is barely meeting its target. “We’re sort of meeting [the traffic limits], but it’s very close, and it’s unacceptably close,” Silver said. “We can and should do better.”

Silver added that before the pandemic, Menlo was meeting its traffic limits more consistently than it is now. While he said this could be due to more parents having the flexibility to drive kids to school as a result of post-pandemic remote work policies, he doesn’t see a reason why the Menlo community can’t replicate the success in past years. “We should have fewer people driving their cars here,” Silver said. “When I see a parent pulling into the loop in the morning and dropping off one kid, it’s just tragic.”

Orangio noted that the number of trips depends on the weather. “We often see a big uptick when it’s colder because, obviously, it’s a less attractive option when it’s cold to walk or bike,” Orangio said, adding that rainstorms contributed to more traffic in January.

To reduce traffic at its gates, the school continues to highlight the potential consequences of violating its agreement with the Town of Atherton. However, recent emails have also touched on the environmental impacts of driving to school. Orangio hopes that the perils of climate change can motivate students to take the bus or train, carpool, walk or bike to school. “Hopefully by next year, we’ll have more of a message around sustainability and less of the really alarmist argument of traffic,”

Orangio said.

Orangio is also working on a sustainability audit of the school. Although she has not yet finished the audit, she said that reducing traffic is essential to reducing the school’s carbon footprint. “Getting to school in a sustainable way is the easiest, lowesthanging fruit that everyone can participate

[which are] two hours on Wednesday night, three hours on Sunday, and so you pretty much devote your entire Sunday to mock trial, and you do a lot of work outside of practice,” Fish said. Fish agrees that her hefty time commitment to mock trial can also take a toll on her sleep schedule. “There have been times where I’ve really felt like I just want to sleep in. [...] I wake up early on the weekdays for school and then I’d have two day tournaments,” Fish said. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep in for like in [to make Menlo more sustainable],” Orangio said.

Silver noted that buses are only running at 60-70% capacity, but he said the school would add more buses if the demand existed. “There’s no limit to our capacity [on the buses], it’s just the limit is our demand,” Silver said. “We want more demand [for the buses].”

According to Silver, the school has no current plans to reduce its enrollment. Still, he and Director of Admissions six weeks.”

Brooke Wilson added that lower enrollment is not ideal for prospective Menlo students and families. “Reducing enrollment means fewer opportunities to positively impact the lives of students and families,” Wilson said.

Nonetheless, they have confidence that they can achieve their traffic goals through a unified community effort.

Ultimately, Fish is proud of the team’s achievements at state finals and is looking forward to nationals. “I am extremely proud of our team for winning the state championship. It is so incredibly hard to do, especially in California because of the amount of teams. Out of more than 500 teams and thousands of competitors, we finished first,” Fish said. “I am excited to move onto nationals and be the one team to represent the state of California.” do a blitz round,” junior Zachary Ruwitch and MMT witness said. A blitz round develops a particular character in a trial. “[A blitz round is] like if you had to do your character, what’s the fastest you could do it and still have all the relevant information come through?” Ruwitch said.

While the students practiced, faculty advisers Jay Bush and Nick Merlesena spent their time organizing travel plans for the group. “I’d say most of the

March