Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer

Eighth-graders Mitchell Rodriguez, left, and David Kirakossian preside as magistrates at a Salem Witch Trial reenactment at St. Joseph of Cupertino School.




Accused witches face judgment

Trial reenactment lets students live history

By AMY JENKINS

Eighth graders, dressed in black and white Puritan costumes, were taken back to 1692 as they reenacted the Salem Witch Trials on Sept. 26 in Ginny Kalb's classroom, at St. Joseph of Cupertino school. For three hours, students played the roles of "afflicted girls," accused witches, magistrates and witnesses.

Each student was given a role and short biography of a real person in colonial Massachusetts to represent in the trial. According to Kalb, they were allowed to research that person further on the Internet and make up stories if they were credible.

This is the sixth year that the eighth-grade class has performed the witch trials, in which students are encouraged to wear authentic costumes with wigs, hats and buckled shoes. Before the trial, students were told who they were against and rehearsed how to act while on the witness stand.

"The point is to make history come alive," Kalb said. "I grew up back East and visited Salem, but the textbook only has a paragraph about the witch trials, so this is the next best thing to taking the students there."

The witch trials began because an Indian slave--named Tituba, played by Laura Laussade--taught several girls black magic and voodoo, causing them to believe they had become afflicted with physical and mental ailments, such as seeing evil spirits. During the trial, these girls accused men and women of the witchcraft that they think caused them pain.

The students playing the "afflicted" girls gave Oscar-worthy performances with shrill screams and hallucinations, blaming the witches for being pulled to the floor and feeling like their legs were missing. "The afflicted girls really cried because we were so emotionally involved," said Andrea Welton, who played "afflicted girl" Anne Putnum Jr.

Students who acted as magistrates, or judges with no background in law, were responsible for questioning the accused witches about their role in witchcraft, the signing of an evil black book, and their affiliation with the afflicted girls. The accused witches denied all accusations of witchcraft.

The students playing the roles of doctors were responsible for checking the validity of the physical ailments of the "afflicted girls." They checked pulses and gave mock medical attention to those in need at the trial. There were even clergy men who provided testimony about whether the accused witches had attended church recently.

After a brief recess, the judges entered the courtroom with verdicts of innocent or guilty, in which case the accused witch was to be hanged or drowned. When student judges came back with their verdicts, Elizabeth Proctor was found guilty of witchcraft, and Tituba was banished to Barbados. Unlike today's court system, the witches stood trial, accused, with no one to defend them.

"Students learn to appreciate today's court system and how people's rights are protected," Kalb said.

Kalb said throughout the eighth-grade year, history comes to life in several other reenactments at St. Joseph of Cupertino school. Students perform a mock Congress during the Revolution, make decisions about life in covered wagons, and reenact a hospital scene after a Civil War battle.

"So many kids are not book learners, and this is an exciting way they can come to love history and understand about people and places," Kalb said.

During the mock trial, students tried to identify with their characters.

"As an accused witch, we put ourselves into the past to see how they felt," said Stephanie Pai, who played accused witch Elizabeth Proctor. "We are doing this instead of reading it."

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