6th-Graders: Death on Titanic Was Avoidable

The 100th anniversary of the sinking of RMS Titanic comes in April, but the decided a mock court case based on the tragedy in March.

Caitlin Hamill’s class proved the White Star Line was culpable in the death of a passenger, Hans Peter Jensen.

“If the ship didn’t hit the iceberg, he wouldn’t have died,” Nile Birch said simply.

He was one of the plaintiff’s attorneys. He had to prepare an opening statement and question witnesses. His co-counsel, Rebecca Harvey, helped prepare the closing statement, she said, and questioned a lot of the witnesses.

“I wasn’t surprised at the verdict,” Rebecca said, “but I was kinda scared when the defense brought up he was drunk.”

The two defense lawyers were Carly Cannazina and Claire Fagan.

“We decided who would do the opening and closing,” Claire said. Carly chose the opening and Claire chose the closing. “the opening is harder,” Claire said, “because it’s the first thing anybody hears.”

“We said the man whose family was suing was drunk,” Carly said.

Claire was surprised at the verdict: "I think we did well defending them."

She said she being a lawyer would be hard. Nile and Carly both think they might want to be lawyers and Rebecca has always wanted to be a lawyer, so this experience reinforced her desire.

Another big part was “Carla Jensen,” who was suing White Star over the death of her fiancé.

Kimberly Fetherston played Carla.

“It was hard being questioned,” she admitted. “I don’t do well with pressure and I was very hot, but I did fine.”

“Carla” was suing because the White Star Line promised a safe trip and her fiancé didn’t get a safe trip.

Kimberly was concerned because the defense emphasized that “Hans Peter Jensen” was intoxicated.

“I thought the lawyer mentioned he was drunk too much,” Kimberly said.

The defense also brought in surprise witnesses.

Meghan Crowley, who was scheduled to be a juror, was one of the witnesses. She was asked questions about the deceased being drunk.

Josie Gutowski was also called as a surprise witness. She was called as “Carla’s” best friend and testified that she didn’t know if he was drunk when he jumped out of the lifeboat.

Dominic Palumbo knew he was to be a witness for the defense. He was Second Officer Lightoller, who helped load the lifeboats. He testified he smelled liquor on the deceased’s breath and that the deceased jumped out of the lifeboat without any reason. But, he also testified, there were not enough lifeboats for all the passengers.

Another defense witness was played by Molly Whelan. She enjoyed when the prosecution asked her questions she wasn’t expecting.

“We practiced, sort of,” she said.

Jurors included Ashlyn Gallagher, Holly Burns and Jenna Stiesi. Most of the jurors said the deliberations were easy.

“I liked helping to decide,” Josie said. “There was a lot of debate on how much evidence each side presented.” She said the jury decided on $40,000 in damages.

Many of the sixth-graders said they enjoyed most the rehearsals where they had to improvise a story. It was a teaching tool to help them learn to think on their feet, Hamill said.

The children also liked working with Municipal Court Judge Michael Carlucci. They all said he was friendly and funny and very helpful. Some knew him before the mock trial. Carly said her brother is friends with Carlucci.