Congratulations to the West Virginia State “We the People” Champions. Clay County High School’s Advance Placement Government & Politics class, taught by Mr. Philip Dobbins and Coached by Mike Mullins, who competed at the Robert C. Bird Federal District Courthouse on December 15, 2021 in the “We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution” 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 its 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 panel of three judges 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.
This year’s team began preparing back in June for the competition by attending a voluntary Constitutional day camp, under the leadership of Dr. Michelle Samples, to acquire foundational knowledge so that when the school year started in August, intense training could begin. These students show that hard work and dedication pays off and success does not come without sacrifice.
Classes can have individual unit winners and overall class winners. Clay County High School won five out of six individual unit championships and won the overall class state championship, defeating the champions from congressional districts one (Tyler Consolidated) and three (Woodrow Wilson).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 Isaac Brown, Christina Brown, Holt Dawson, Hunter Evans, Alexis Gilliland, Jonathan Hill, Trey Lindenthal, Dylan McCumbers, Ethan Morris, Stephanie Naylor, Madison Paxton, Isaiah Payton, Aiden Taylor, Kylie Taylor, Ivy Taylor and Kirsten Woods.