Lek, was talking to her friend on her hand phone in Ms. Lawson’s class.
- Ms Lawson told her to stop talking on the phone in her class.
- Lek ended the call, but a few minutes later her phone rang again and she answered it.
- Ms Lawson went to Lek’s desk and asked Lek to give her the phone, which she did.
- Ms lawson returned the phone to Lek at the end of class.
- Later Lek told her Internet Chatroom friends that Ms Lawson had stolen her hand phone.
- Her Chatroom friends sent the story to other friends and the story spread and grew.

• This is the first of three related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases.
Lesson Plans:
- "I can say what I want!"
- "I was just protecting my kid"
- "News vs Gossip"

• Related lesson: The New York Times - Learning Network - Talking Trash
Examines how online anonymity grants teens license to gossip:
Students will consider their own experiences with online message boards and chat rooms, discover how teens are using the Web to talk about people in their lives. Go to this Media Lesson.

Newspaper Headline read: Bookstore wants ten year old in Jail!
The newspaper article claimed: "The bookstore doesn't care about the boy's future and only cares about making money. The staff are not acting like Thai people, who are kind..."

Within a week of the newspaper coverage, sales at the bookstore had dropped by 90%, customers stopped coming, and two bookstore staff quit because they were afraid of the threatening phone calls to the store....

• This is the second of two related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- The Case of Slanted News Lesson Plan.
- The Case of the Stolen Comic Book.

Chat room image Florida online reading - selling newspapers image source newscopy.org

A Newspaper that looks for possible stories from Thai web site bulletin boards, blogs, and chat-rooms picked up the story spreading about Lek who had claimed her teacher had stolen her hand phone.

The newspaper called her mother for an interview.
Lek’s mother told the Newspaper that Ms Lawson hated her daughter and took her hand phone to punish her.

The Thai Newspaper printed a story: Headline News - "Teacher abuses kid"
The story added that the school in which the teacher taught was very bad and should be closed until the government investigates.

The same day, a parent of a student from the school sent the newspaper article to the head of the school.
He translated the article for Lek's teacher, Ms lawson, who became very upset.
"That's not true!" She said. "They lied!"
"Don’t they need any evidence to show what they print is true?"

The Newspaper said it was just passing along stories that interested readers and the damage to Ms Lawson and the school were their own fault not the Newspapers.

• This is the third of three related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- "I can say what I want!"
- "I was just protecting my kid"
- "News vs Gossip"

- The Prince, who had first thought all of his dreams would be met by finding a real princess, discovered that nothing he nor anyone else did for the Princess was enough for her.
- She blamed and complained to everyone that she was not being treated like a real princess, and this tortured her in mind and body.
- The Prince having seen what life would be like with the Princess called off the wedding.
- The Princess said it wasn't fair to cancel the wedding since she was a real princess which was what the Prince had wanted.

• The Learning Foundation - "Hard to Please" - Simplified Mock Trial - Lesson Plan

• The Learning Foundation - "Did Li Qingyou Break the Law?" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson

(image credit: www.candumusic.ca

Tip was 160 centimetres tall but had speakers that reached from floor to ceiling of his room.
- Efforts to get Tip to turn the volume down failed and the neighbors asked the court to order him to stop.
- Tip said loud music made him feel powerful.
- He said music from the Temples during their regular fairs and the Village loud speakers every day in the early morning where even louder than my music.
_ The neighbours said:
- Even though the music at Temple Fairs was even louder than his, they only had Temple Fairs sometimes, whereas he played his music every night.
- The Village music and announcements are loud, but the messages and information are supposed to help everyone.

• The Learning Foundation - "Loud Music" - Simplified Mock Trial - Lesson Plan

This Simplified Mock Trial encourages students to examine the issue of subsidizing fuel costs. The facts are based on a Bangkok Post article describing a ruling by the Thai Central Administrative Court to freeze bus fares in Bangkok while it considered a consumer groups case against private bus operators.

The Private bus operators in this Simplified Mock Trial answer:
The ruling by the Administrative Court to freeze the fares places the entire burden of absorbing the added cost of fuel costs on the private bus companies and assumes that the facts presented by the Consumer Group are correct before examining them.
Therefore the Private bus operators ask the Court of Appeal to overturn the ruling by the Administrative Court until the facts in the case are examined.

• The Learning Foundation - "Freezing Bus Fares" Appealing a lower court opinion - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring How Gas Prices Are Set and How People Feel About Paying More to Fill Up -
Overview: Students investigate how gasoline prices are set and conduct surveys to find out how much people know and what they think about this topic. Go to this Economy and Society Lesson.

"People, especially academics who want to see the constitution lead to genuine democracy, are naïve. We all know elections are evil. Even HM the King places trust in the judges; would you condemn them?" From the article: Charter drafter pans 'evil' elections - The Nation.

Giles Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University charges:

"The drafters will claim they are following the policies of the palace, but it's much more complicated than that, .... Moreover, the monarchy is just one institution. There are 65 million other people in Thailand who deserve an equal say in how the country is run."
"The (18th Thai Constitution) has a problem right from the start,... Giving power to unelected civil servants who tend to be very conservative is a step backwards." From the article: The Rise of Thailand’s Third Branch - By Daniel Ten Kate   - The Asia Sentinel.

• The Learning Foundation - "It's my country/I can do what I want!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

• The Learning Foundation - "The 18th Thai constitution?" - What makes a law good lesson plan.

Traffic would come to a halt every time the national anthem is played under new proposals to promote patriotism in Thailand.
Opponents of the Flag Bill, put forward by a group of retired and current generals, say it would cause chaos on the roads.
The minute long national anthem is played twice a day in Bangkok, during the raising and lowering of the flag, reports Sky News.
Retired General Pricha Rochanasena, 70, said: "The national anthem lasts only one minute and eight seconds.
"So why can't motorists stop their cars for the sake of the country? They already spend more time in traffic jams anyway."
But a vote on the Bill in the (military appointed parliament) has been deferred to allow a committee to see whether it would work in practice.
Politician Wallop Tangkananurak, who is opposed to the proposal, said: "It would be chaotic if the Bill had passed as it is now."

• The Learning Foundation - "Making Patriots in Thailand" - Simplified Mock Trial - Lesson Plan.

• The Learning Foundation - "Buying the Competition" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

Oscar Pistorius asked the Court of Appeal to examine qualification to compete while using of an assistive device, not only in solely biomechanical terms.
"These have always been my legs. I train harder than other guys, eat better, sleep better and wake up thinking about athletics. I think that's probably why I'm a bit of an exception."
There are many disadvantages to sprinting on carbon-fiber legs, Pistorius and his coach said. After a cumbersome start, he needs about 30 meters to gain his rhythm. His knees do not flex as readily, limiting his power output. His grip can be unsure in the rain. And when he runs into a headwind or grows fatigued, he must fight rotational forces that turn his prosthetic devices sideways, said Ampie Louw, who coaches Pistorius.
My legs allow me to run, but to win I face the same challenges as every other Olympic runner, and I am asking the Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the I.A.A.F, so I can compete in the 2008 Olympics.

The Newspaper answered, Muslims, like Christians, do not worship a person called Allah. They worship a single supreme being, which the Arabic language denotes as Allah.
An English Koran uses the words "In the name of God the compassionate and merciful," not "In the name of Allah the compassionate and merciful."
For Muslims, Jesus was a prophet of Islam, and the Koran represents the continuation of God's revelation begun in the Old Testament.
If Malaysian Malays are confused about the distinction between Islam and Christianity because they use the same word to describe the one God, clearly there is a lot wrong with the educational system.

• The Learning Foundation - Only Muslims can use 'Allah' - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

- As early as 1 A.M. the crows from Nang's roosters bounced and echoed along the rows of five story Chinese shop houses in his neighbourhood.
- Nang had brought them when he moved from the country, so he and his family would feel more at home in the city.
- The neighbour's complaints had only met with smiles and nods from Nang.
- He thought they too would come to love the feel of the country like he and his family, given a little time.
- But they didn't.

Weeks turned into months and then a year before Tong , whose house was across the street, could stand no more.

- Tong filed a complaint accusing Nang of disturbing the people in the neighbourhood and asked the court to order that the roosters be removed.
- Nang answered that his roosters were a normal part of Thai life and his family loved them, so it was unfair to ask him to go without them.
- Tong responded that roosters may be a normal part of Thai life in the country, but Nang had moved to the city where the roosters were causing headaches for the people who could not sleep because of them.

• The Learning Foundation - The Case of "The City Rooster" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson.

- It was Saturday. Top asked his friend, Nong, to give him a ride home on his motorcycle.
- Both boys are 13 years old and the day before during a football game at school, Nong hurt his foot.
- Nong’s father warned Nong to be careful driving their motorcycle because he still limped from the injury to his foot. Nong said “No Problem” and the boys set off for the two kilometre ride to Top’s house.
- Around the same time, Mr. Gordon left his home in the same village to pick up his wife who had been studying on the weekends in town. Mr. Gordon drove through the village to the four lane divided highway and after looking both ways he began his left turn on to the highway.
- Mr. Gordon had just enough time to stop when Nong’s motorcycle cut in front of his car from the opposite direction.
- The motorcycle caught the front end, when it hit, Top jumped off the motorcycle but the motorcycle fell on Nong.

• This is the first of two related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- "Nong's Motorcycle Accident" - Lesson Plan
- Appealing a Lower Court Opinion in The Case/ "Nong's motorcycle accident"

The Lower Court Judge ruled:
- Mr. Gordon should be more careful when preparing to enter a highway, since there are other people using the highways and his car is bigger and can cause them a lot of damage.
- He wrote that Mr Gordon had not been careful enough and a young boy was hurt.
- He ordered Mr. Gordon to pay for Nong’s medical costs as well as the court and legal expenses his family spent bringing the case to court.

Mr. Gordon did not agree and presented these facts and reasons to the Court of Appeal to consider:
- Mr. Gordon followed every traffic law and safe driving practice, which the facts in the trial proved.
- Nong was an inexperienced 13 year old driver who had never taken a driving test or obtained a license to drive and was driving with an injured foot in the wrong direction on a four lane highway when he ran into Mr. Gordon's car.
- Nong had been the cause of the accident.
- Mr Gordon claimed that the Lower Court ruling ignored the facts in the case and the law and therefore could encourage the general public to also ignore laws that protected everyone.

• This is the second related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:

- "Nong's Motorcycle Accident"
- Appealing a Lower Court Opinion/ The Case of "Nong's motorcycle accident"

cartoon image lorenjavier.com

- The accused is a ten year old boy who allegedly stole a comic book from a bookstore.
- A store clerk saw the boy take the comic book and hide it in his pants out of sight, she followed him out of the store when he didn't pay and had a policeman confirm he had it.
- The boy said he had bought the comic book the day before but the receipt was at home.
- The store clerk said the comic book in his pants had only arrived at the store today, so the boy was lying

• This is the first of two related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- The Case of the Stolen Comic Book Lesson Plan
- The Case of Slanted News.

To complete her cross-examination, prosecutor Sarah Carr, 16, had one final question for Andrew G., 17, the defendant in a recent case at the youth court in Colonie, N.Y.: "Didn't you know it was wrong?" Andrew nodded shyly, eyes averted. He knew that stealing a $4.97 Star Wars action figure from Wal-Mart was not only a petty crime but also a geeky one in the eyes of his high school peers, some of whom were serving on the jury. From the story - A Jury of Their Peers By Jeremy Caplan - Time Magazine

• The New York Times - Learning Network - Exploring the Youth Court System by Engaging in a Mock Trial
Overview: Students learn about youth courts and explore the system further by engaging in a mock youth court trial. Go to this Law and Society Lesson

A Thai Road Builder had a one year contract to make a road with toll booths to collect fares from drivers.
- It placed an order with a Thai Sales Company and signed a contract for the manufacture and delivery of the toll booths from a British Manufacturer.
- The Road Builder was 45 days late sending the final payment for the order, and the delivery date of the toll booths was also delayed.
- The Road Builder claimed The Thai Sales Company should pay the late fee since they took the order and were responsible for delivering them on time. Facts in full.

• This is the first of two related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- The Case of "Finishing too Late" - A Contract Dispute.
- Appealing a lower court opinion/ "The Road Builder vs The Sales Company" - Appealing a Lower Court Opinion.

Jack climbed up the beanstalk and took the hen that laid golden eggs, two money sacks, and a magic harp, while the giant was sleeping. The giant has accused Jack of stealing his things and has brought his case to court.
Jack and the Bean Stalk - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson - Canadian School Net

• The Learning Foundation - Did Ex Red Guard - Li Qingyou Break the Law?

Li Qingyou's statment:"Our mentality was that when Chairman Mao waved his hand, we would move, and whatever he said, we would do. We took their money, gold, silver, and things and gave it to the government."
Pin Dueng was one of the landowners described as ’rich’ in Li’s statement, and has accused Li of stealing his things and has brought the case to court.
Did Ex Red Guard - Li Qingyou Break the Law? - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson

In this lesson, as we consider a criminal case, we see that the state is bringing charges against an individual for committing an offence that is considered a wrong to society as a whole.

The accused is a grade five student at Brightview Elementary School. During morning recess, the school janitor heard some strange noises coming from the washroom. The janitor went in to the washroom to investigate the situation and discovered the accused writing on the walls. Two toilets were plugged with toilet paper and the water was beginning to run all over the washroom floor. The accused was the only person in the washroom and the janitor knew the toilets were not plugged five minutes earlier.

The accused has been charged with the offence of "committing public mischief;" meaning the willful destroying or damaging of public property. The accused pleads "not guilty" to the charge. Remember that the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Therefore if the crown, or state, cannot gather together enough evidence to prove its case, the case will be dismissed without the accused ever having to give evidence. If found guilty, the accused person will be punished. Go to this Canada School Net Simplified Mock Trial.

Lek's mother becomes involved in the case of the confiscated hand phone when the head of Ms Lawson's school explained to her that Ms Lawson had told him her daughter had disturbed the class, and only after she had answered a second call had Ms Lawson taken her hand phone, which she returned at the end of class.

- “My daughter doesn’t lie!” she said, and hung up the phone.
- She had her daughter copy all the comments people had made on the Internet about the story and made a CD of them.
- She sent the CD to all the schools in the area with a letter complaining that Ms Lawson was a bad teacher and punished Thai kids.
- Many parents called cancelling their registrations at Ms Lawson's school for the following term...
Image source Florida online reading
• The second of three related Learning Foundation - Simplified Mock Trial cases:
- "I was just protecting my kid" - Lesson Plan.
- "I can say what I want!"
- "News vs Gossip"

• Good rules are fair.
• Good rules can be followed (that is, are within societal values).
• Good rules state the penalty for disobeying.
• Good rules can be enforced. It is possible to prevent anyone from breaking the law; and it is possible to witness anyone breaking the law and to make them pay the penalty....

Is the "Mae Sa Waterfall admission fee" a good law?
The admission fee for foreigners is: adults 200 baht and children 100 baht. The admission fee for Thais is: adults 20 baht, Thai children 10 baht, motorcycles 10 baht and cars 20 baht.

• The Learning Foundation - "Entrance fees at Maisawaterfall, Thailand" - What makes a law good lesson plan.

- Pop and Benz don't talk to each other in school, but sometimes go to the same Internet shop to play video games.
- One day, Pop ran out of the money he had, but wanted to keep playing and asked Benz to give him some money.
- Benz said no, even though he had enough money.
- Pop, got angry and told Benz: "You are rich, you can give me the money, you are just being selfish!"
- Pop grabbed Benz’s books and threw them on the floor.
- This made Benz angry, so he grabbed Pop's only notebook and ripped it.
- Pop then grabbed Benz’s hand phone, and threw it on the floor where the cover broke.

• The Learning Foundation - "I really want to Play!" - Simplified Mock Trial Lesson Plan.

The Lower Court Judge ruled:
The Contract between The Road Builder and The British Manufacturer was valid,
- But The Road Builder did not understand it, because it was in English, so it did not apply.

Image credit State of Minnesota

The Sales Company answered:
• The Road Builder had ample time and resources to ask questions in Thai about the English contract or have it translated completely.

• The claimed ignorance of English as an excuse was only made by The Road Builder after it had been fined for not completing the road on time.

• This is the second related Learning Foundation Simplified Mock Trial cases:

- The Case of "Finishing too Late"
- Appealing a lower court opinion/ The Road Builder vs The Sales Company

Without distinguishing between civil and criminal issues, this lesson illustrates the essentials of our adversary system: that each party is allowed to tell his/her side of the story, that the judge is the person with the authority to settle the dispute, that a fair decision is presented with reasons supporting that decision.

Plaintiff is a comic book collector. Defendant is a classmate.
Plaintiff loans ten comic books to defendant for one week. The books are in very good condition and plaintiff warns defendant to be careful of them. The plaintiff had paid $.25 a copy for the books or a total of $2.50. Defendant returns five comic books in good condition, but five are crumpled and torn. Plaintiff demands $2.50 of the defendant to cover costs. Defendant refuses. Plaintiff sues. Go to this Canada School Net Simplified Mock Trial.