Teams from The Wheatley School in Old Westbury and East Islip High School were this year’s mock trial champions for Long Island.

Wheatley’s team bested 45 others to win the Nassau County title at the Nassau County Supreme Court in Mineola, while East Islip’s team bested 32 others to win the Suffolk County title at the Suffolk County Surrogate’s Court in Riverhead. Second-place teams were from W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury and Northport High School.

As county champs, Wheatley and East Islip competed last month against six other regional winners at the state finals in Albany, which was won by Nottingham High School in Syracuse.

“I couldn’t be prouder of this team,” said Patsy Lester, an East Islip social studies teacher who coached the team with attorney Brian Mitchell. “Every individual matters on my team, but we couldn’t achieve this level of success without their 100% commitment to each other.”

This year’s fictional case involved a superintendent who was suing a student for defamation following the creation of artificial intelligence-generated content intended to derail his career and campaign for the New York State Senate, according to Lester.

“We are tremendously proud of our group of kids, as they’ve become amazing attorneys and witnesses, but even better people,” said Justin Portente, a Wheatley social studies teacher who advised the team with attorney David Schwartz.

The county tournaments were coordinated by the Nassau and Suffolk county bar associations.

EAST WILLISTON/ JERICHO

Essay winners

Arav Shelat of Jericho High School and Ammar Artif of the Wheatley School won first place in the high school and middle school categories, respectively, of an essay contest coordinated by the South Asian American Women’s Alliance. They received $250.

This year’s contest challenged participants to craft 500-word responses to the following question: “Is artificial intelligence a threat to human job security in the present or future?”

The two second-place high school awards went to Sharanya Shanmugavel of Jericho High School and Emma Yan of Plainview-Old Bethpage JFK High School, while second place among middle schoolers went to Olivia Zeng of The Wheatley School. They received $150.

LOCUST VALLEY

Fed Challenge

A team from Friends Academy in Locust Valley is among 12 winners nationwide of this year’s High School Fed Challenge coordinated by the Federal Research Bank of Cleveland and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The competition challenged participants to research the economics of food and “write and submit podcast scripts reflecting their research,” according to competition officials.

Friends Academy’s winning podcast script was titled “Dining with the Stars: The Economics of Michelin Star Restaurants.” The team members were Aaron Labelson, Mircea Manu, Meher Walia and Jaime Yeung.

The selected scripts will be published this summer in the Journal of Future Economists.

ISLANDWIDE

Youth Summit

Five Amityville High School students who created artwork “portraying the horrors of contemporary life” were named best overall project at the 2025 Long Island Youth Summit, according to summit officials. The annual event, which was held at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue, asked students to explore current “socio-medical, environmental and socio-economic issues,” the summit’s website said.

The winners, who split a $1,000 prize, were Shani Bramwell, Eric Francisco, April Kenny, Elidi Laquidara and Cesia Guevara Melendez.

The other top award for best overall scientific research project went to Amityville students Jesus Barrios and Cristian Reyes, who split a $500 prize, for developing an “ethical artificial intelligence assistant for students,” summit officials said.

To participate, students submitted projects to a selection committee with 150 finalists selected for the summit.

By Michael R. Ebert

michael.ebert@newsday.com

Michael R. Ebert is an education researcher and has worked for Newsday in various capacities since 2003. He was part of an 11-person team named as 2008 Pulitzer Prize finalists for investigative coverage of the LIRR's platform safety issues.