Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

My name is Janelle Sands and along with my

co council, Andrew Nassar and Katie Malus, I represent the defendant, Roughed Grouse High
School. Today you will hear about the events leading up to the unfortunate death of Ms. Jordan
Simon from erythropoietin (EPO) and you will be asked to consider who was most negligent in
the cause of her death. Today, the plaintiff will make an attempt to sway you to believe that my
defendant, Roughed Grouse High School, bears the majority of the blame for the negligence.
But today we will show you Jordans own negligence because she was 17 years old at the time of
her death, and in PennsylviaPennsylvania, minors over 14 years old are presumed capable of
negligence. We will also show you of Jordans mothers of her daughter, whom she refers to as
her prodigy. Add something here to sum it up
We all know the phrase it takes a village to raise a child and we know that responsibilities are
shared amongst the community. Wisawe was a community that was proud of Jordans
accomplishments, celebrating her successes and helping her to meet her dreams. But with her
sudden death, the village started to play the blame game, finding a scape goat and pointing
fingers at the school- saying the school is most responsible for this tragedy.
To do so, the plaintiff will have you hear from three witnesses.
You will hear from Kelly Simon, Jordans mother, a mother who selfishly fulfilled her own
dreams vicariously through her daughter. Kelly pushed Jordan to be the track star Kelly wanted
to be. But Kelly couldnt find the guts to face her daughter to further question if Jordan was on
EPO or find the time to take her sick daughter to the doctor. A parent sees his or her child the
most and knows them the best. If this isnt negligence, I dont what is. The schools only have
the kids for a few hours and when they do, there are dozens of kids to keep track of. Kelly
Simon had one daughter, but lacked the courage to do the right thing.
Next, you will hear from Motgan Pearce. She was a runner on the same track team as Jordan.
But Jordan was always better- on varsity while Morgan was on jv, getting special practices while
Morgan waited after for her. Although they seemed to be friends, it was more of a competition,
with Jordan leaving Morgan bitter and jealous. The only consistent thing we will be able to get
from her testimony today is her convenient lies and latent jealousy.
The third witness, Lynn Roper, is a consultant for the plaintiff, but also has a deep personal
interest in todays case that I fear may interfere with his/her interpretation of the truth. Mr.
Roper claims Roughed Grouse is legible for not having a drug test, but that drug test doesnt
even detect EPO, and in fact, the PA Supreme Court has ruled that this sort of drug testing is a
violation of the state constitution.
We, the defense, will then present you with three witnesses to show you how the village raised
the child and village as a whole is responsible.
Comment [AN1]: Sort of makes the village-
or school- seem responsible.
Comment [AN2]: reword
Comment [AN3]: this is good. But make the
paragraph about what right thing to do was.
Comment [AN4]: Elaborate, but not too
specific.
Comment [AN5]: But, then wouldnt the
village be the school?
First you will hear from Terry Swift, the track coach at Roughed Grouse, and a man of integrity,
honesty, and pride. He is a man, who personally endorses a drug free life and who wants to help
his athletes reach their dreams and become champions through hardwork and fair competition.
He was the only one who took action and called the ISPAC to get help for Jordan. Yet he is the
only one the plaintiff is blaming.
Next you will hear from Jamie Hagar, the assistant principal and athletic director at Roughed
Grouse who will explain how the administration keeps the school drug free by implementing the
Zero Tolerance Policy and focusing on education and prevention. She will further explain how
the drug testing the plaintiff calls the school responsible for not having, actually violates the
Pennsylvania state constitution.
Finally Aubrey Brady, an educational administration expert witness, will affirm everything
Jamie Hagar will tell you, also showing the impracticality of these drug tests and how the
Roughed Grouse followed every single law.
So even though the village raised Jordan, celebrated her success, and mourned her death, the
plaintiff tries to blame Roughed Grouse for the sole negligence that caused her death. Today, we
the defendants will show you that for every finger they point at another villager, four point right
back at them. Ill let you do the math and figure out which way the negligence is actually
pointing.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
Comment [AN6]: They wont know what
this is
Comment [AN7]: This is a good statement,
but maybe you can add somrthing too it?
Comment [AN8]: I added this inearlier in
Lynn Ropers description, even though we will
show it in Haggars testimony. I think you
should add something about how they
educate the PARENTS with their drug program.
Comment [AN9]: Wording. This sounds too
pushy.
Comment [AN10]: Add a small detail?
Comment [AN11]: Again, I will consider
alternatives for this analogy.
Comment [AN12]: I really like this
juxtaposition and parallelism- see if you can
add more of this in this opening because you
did it very well here.
Comment [AN13]: See comment 11
Comment [AN14]: Four?
Comment [AN15]: I like that you ended the
opening this way- its very good, but I just
dont like this sentence. Find a different way
to say the same thing.