SAN FRANCISCO\u2014Alaska, California, Montana and Washington state high school students are the winners of the 2022 Ninth Circuit Civics Contest, an educational outreach effort sponsored by the U.S. Courts for the Ninth Circuit and the Public Information and Community Outreach Committee. This year\u2019s theme was \u201cThe First Amendment and the Schoolhouse Gate: Students\u2019 Free Speech Rights.\u201d Students were asked to address \u201cWhat are students\u2019 free speech rights\u2014and responsibilities\u2014on and off campus?\u201d
\n\u201cThe question of what are students\u2019 free speech rights\u2014and responsibilities\u2014on and off campus is foundational to young people\u2019s understanding of intergenerational civic duties for a fair and just society,\u201d said Ninth Circuit Chief Judge Mary H. Murguia. \u201cIt is truly wonderful that so many students engaged in the opportunity to contribute their ideas about individual rights through essays and videos for our circuit-wide civics contest. I am also deeply grateful to the many volunteers who worked diligently on every detail to make this competition a success.\u201d <\/p>\n
Winners of the essay competition
\n\u25a0 First place\u2014Kevin Guo ($3,000), Cupertino High
\n\u25a0 S chool, Cupertino, California
\nSecond place\u2014Lillian Yang ($1,700), West Anchorage High School, Anchorage, Alaska
\n\u25a0 Third place\u2014Sophia Rey ($1,000), Sehome High School, Bellingham, Washington <\/p>\n
Winners of the video competition
\n\u25a0 First place\u2014Team of Sofia Tretiak, Francesco Comuzzi and Enrico Scuppa (Total of $3,000), Terry High School, Montana
\n \u25a0 Second place\u2014Jesus Montes ($1,700), Rubidoux High School, Jurupa Valley, California
\n \u25a0 Third place\u2014Gillian Celis ($1,000), Eastlake High School, Chula Vista, California
\nFirst-place winners, along with a parent or guardian, will be invited to attend the 2022 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Big Sky, Montana. Federal courts in all 15 judicial districts in the Ninth Circuit held local contests with winners who went on to compete in the circuit-wide contest.
\nOf the 800 essays and 112 video entries received, 42 essays and 29 videos from the local contests advanced to the circuit level. Of the entries that advanced, 12 essays and 10 videos were selected for final consideration by the PICO Committee members composed of judges, court executives, attorneys and staff, who helped plan and organize the contest. Blind judging was employed throughout the judging process. <\/p>\n
Essay finalists who made it to the top 12 for final consideration are:
\n\u25a0 Yuna Bi, Benicia High School, Benicia, California
\n\u25a0 Gillian Celis, Eastlake High School, Chula Vista, California
\n\u25a0 Oliver Charat-Collins, Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, California
\n\u25a0 Jin Chung, St. John\u2019s School, Tumon, Guam
\n\u25a0 Liz Duke-Moe, Boise High School, Boise, Idaho
\n\u25a0 Benjamin Flitcroft, Benicia High School, Benicia, California
\n\u25a0 Paige Goetzenberger, Arizona School for the Arts, Phoenix, Arizona
\n\u25a0 Dominico Granieri, Reno High School, Reno, Nevada
\n\u25a0 Erica Richardson, Ballard High School, Seattle, Washington <\/p>\n
Video finalists who made it to the top 10 for final consideration are:
\n\u25a0 Team of Sargun Bhatia and Diya Daftary, BASIS Chandler, Chandler, Arizona
\n\u25a0 Team of Rachel Cabales, Kedrick Diego and Josh Santiago, George Washington High
\nSchool, Mangilao, Guam
\n\u25a0 Sophia Calandrillo, Shorewood High School, Shoreline, Washington
\n\u25a0 Team of Maddux Gillett, Jacob Keaka and Hayden Konstantin, Sherwood High School,
\nSherwood, Oregon
\n\u25a0 Jay Paek, Homestead High School, Cupertino, California
\n\u25a0 Team of Kailey Russell, Josie Sawyer and Kailey Russell, Galena High School, Reno,
\nNevada
\n\u25a0 Giovanna Sanchez, Bonita Vista High School, Chula Vista, California
\nWinning essays and videos will be posted on the civic contest website in July. <\/p>\n
The competition was open to students in grades 9-12 in public, private and parochial schools and home-schooled students of equivalent grade status in nine western states and two Pacific island jurisdictions. Prizes and contest-related expenditures are funded through attorney admission fees collected by the federal courts in the Ninth Circuit to fund educational programs for the bar and community. <\/p>\n
The PICO Committee was established in 2000 by the Judicial Council of the Ninth Circuit, the governing body for federal courts in the West. The committee seeks to promote public understanding of and confidence in the judicial system through civics education and outreach to the community and media. The committee includes federal judges, court executives, attorneys and court staff. (Ninth Circuit)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SAN FRANCISCO\u2014Alaska, California, Montana and Washington state high school students are the winners of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":360481,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1925],"class_list":["post-369797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-ninth-circuit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}