Ohio County School Wins State Award
By: Web Producer
Updated: March 11, 2008

News Release: From: Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts
For the fourth year in a row, Ohio County High School in Hartford took the runner-up position at the We the People … The Citizen and the Constitution state civic education competition, which was held Feb. 18 at Embassy Suites Hotel in Lexington. The state competition hosted four teams that had advanced from the district level – Frederick Fraize High School in Cloverport, Highlands High School in Fort Thomas, Ohio County High School in Hartford and Phelps High School in Phelps. Highlands High School was named the winner and will advance to the national competition May 2-4 in Washington, D.C. Ohio County team members, who were coached by teacher Randy Brown, are Ian Anderson, Kenneth Beemer, Brittany Bradley, Courtney Chinn, Leslie Ford, Sara Funk, Michelle Hall, Ike Minor, Rebekah Phelps, Darren Michael Porter, Jaron Porter, Mallory Ralph and Kendall Wood. Secretary of State Trey Grayson presented trophies and other awards at a banquet after the competition. The Kentucky Court of Justice and the Center for Civic Education in California are co-sponsors of the We the People … the Citizen and the Constitution program. This nationally acclaimed civic education program for high school students was created by the Center for Civic Education to promote the history and philosophy of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Students demonstrate their knowledge by competing in a mock congressional hearing. The exercise requires them to use their understanding of constitutional principles to defend positions on historical and contemporary issues. An entire class must compete, with teams of three to five students making a presentation on each of the program’s six units. Students compete before a panel of judges who independently score each unit’s performance. The high school with the highest overall score on all six units is declared the winner. “We are pleased that program veterans Dr. Deborah Williamson and Earl Kuhnell from the Kentucky Administrative Office of the Courts are once again involved in the administration of center programs,” said Robert Leming, national director of the We the People … The Citizen and the Constitution program. “The center has enjoyed vigorous, long-standing support from the Kentucky Supreme Court, specifically from the Honorable Joseph E. Lambert, chief justice, and many other judges throughout the state, such as the Honorable Sara Combs, chief judge of the Court of Appeals, and the Honorable Gregory T. Popovich, Campbell District Court. We the People provides young people in Kentucky with an opportunity to develop a better understanding of the principles that underlie our constitutional democracy. I encourage teachers to take advantage of free training opportunities and sets of material.” We the People is one of the many youth-related programs offered through the Division of Law Related Education at the Administrative Office of the Courts in Frankfort. The Administrative Office of the Courts is the operational arm of the Kentucky Court of Justice and supports the activities of 4,000 court system employees, including the elected offices of justices, judges and circuit court clerks. The AOC also executes the Judicial Branch budget.

