Ethical Question

[sweetnovicane]

Okay, I won't give my whole sob story about yesterday's regionals, but I do have one ethical question to propose to you other Mock Trial people.

If one of the evaluators knows which team is which and is a mother of a member on a competing team, should she be allowed to evaluate at all?

Comments

[blackberry_wine]

Holy shit, are you serious? I'm gonna say big huge undisputable NO on this one. They let a parent of a competitor rate the trials? That's incredibly short-sighted of them. I mean, I suppose it wouldn't be so bad as long as she wasn't rating her own child's trial, but seriously, that opens the door for some serious questions about her ability to rate subjectively. Sorry about that, my friend.

[belleof_theball]

Well, in our county, all the scorers know which team is which. We tried to get that changed this year, but the coordinators gave a flat-out "No."

She should not be able to judge. As a mother, she knows who her child's main rivalry is and she can manipulate it.

[suchid]

Not in my opinion. Even if she's completely fair, there should be no relations involved in judging or advocacy if a relation is already scheduled for judging or advocacy, if only to maintain a sense of propriety.

[anaraelia]

I'd say no. I'd like to think that no one would abuse that power in favor of their child, but honestly, I think lowly of anyone who'd be willing to judge a competition their child was in. It shouldn't need to be in the rules, no parent should volunteer for that sort of thing.

In Michigan, the judges aren't supposed to know, and clothing that would identify a team is forbidden. But the team members use their real names, which are all neatly listed under their schools in the booklets that are lying all over the place during competition, so a really determined judge could find out. And by States the teams are paired based on their Regionals rankings, so it must be kind of obvious.

But it doesn't really matter unless one of judges has a connection to a certain school, in which case, well, they shouldn't be judging. Sorry about that.

[ilya1]

Something like this has happened before in Michigan, at least once. But yeah, we have rules specifically to prevent that, and I think it would be grounds for a formal dispute there - if it were practical to file one, which it might not be.

[anaraelia]

Oh? Do tell.

[ilya1]

There's not that much to tell; it was before I was on the team, even. There was a time when one of the judges greeted the members of the other team by name, and afterwards they said something like "You were a lot better than last time. I'm so glad you used my suggestion." I don't know if we picked up the other two votes or not.

[anonymous]

what state are you from? my bet is ohio, as corrupt as the juding has been against my team.
did her kid get an award?

[sweetnovicane]

Actually, Georgia. In the Northeast Region.

And yeah...he did get an award. :/

[anonymous]

that's really, REALLY stupid.
i'm glad ohio is better now...