Congratulations to the West Virginia state “We The People” Champions. Clay County High School’s Advance Placement Government and Politics class, taught by Philip Dobbins, traveled to Charleston on December 11, 2016, to compete in the “We The People” state competition.

This is a competition where students demonstrate their knowledge of the Constitution and current issues in mock congressional style hearings. Each school participating must divide their classes into six teams. These six teams prepare a four-minute verbal response to a constitutional question and then are asked follow up questions by a team of three judge for six minutes. Teams are scored on their knowledge of the Constitution and their ability to apply the concepts to their everyday lives as Americans.

Classes can have individual teams winners and overall class winners. Clay County High School won six out of six individual team championships and won the overall class state championship defeating the champions from Congressional Districts one and two. By winning the state championship, Clay County High School has earned a spot in the National Finals in Washington, D.C., in April of this year.

Members of the class are David Tanner, Haley Jones, Dallas Summers, Seth Stover, Ian Smith, Thomas Haverty, Ely Osborne, James Carroll, Zach Wynn, Kiera Bullard, Autumn Dobbins, Molly Bragg, Sunny Hudnall, and Darren Ray.

Thank you to the following people and organizations for making the Clay County High School, “We The People” team’s trip to Nationals in Washington, D.C., possible: Clay County Board of Education, Dave Pierson and Pierson’s Lumber, Bruce Cunningham and Cunningham Motors, GregGency and Clay County Bank, Gabe Hubbard and Hubbard Dentistry, Clay Rite Aid, Clay Pharmacy, Kevin and Melinda Issacs, Jeff Krauklis, Bob Ashley, Amron Truss, William and Janet McDonald, and BJ Evans and Aridea Solutions.