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March 11, 2011
NEW YORK STATE STUDENTS COMPETE IN NATIONAL
COMPETITION ON CONSTITUTION
ALBANY—Students from Half Hollow Hills East High School (Dix
Hills) will represent New York State in the We the People: The Citizen
and the Constitution National Finals, the highly prestigious academic
competition on the U.S. Constitution, in Washington D.C.
Half Hollow Hills, under the guidance of their teacher David Pitman,
earned the best score of the nine high schools that attended New York
State Final Hearings in Albany on March 5. Panels of judges, 18 in all,
rated participating students on their knowledge of the Constitution and
their ability to relate today’s news and court cases to their
knowledge of the Constitution.
The other eight schools (and their awards) were:
• Forest Hills High School; Tara Kelly, teacher –
Second Place
• James Madison High School, Brooklyn; Stacey Azoff, teacher
– Third Place
• Smithtown High School West; Joseph Gatto, teacher –
Unit 1 award
• St. Francis Preparatory School, Fresh Meadows; Michael
Wagner, teacher – Unit 2 award
• Westfield Academy and Central School; Greg Birner, teacher
– Unit 3 award
• Edward R. Murrow High School, Brooklyn; Susana Giberga,
teacher – Unit 4 award
• Shenendehowa High School East, Clifton Park; Tammy Crump
and Amber Quinn, teachers – Unit 5 award
• Clarkstown Senior High School South, Nyack; James T.
Russell, teacher – Unit 6 award
The first round of the national finals will be held in Arlington,
Virginia, April 30–May 1. Constitutional scholars, lawyers, and
government leaders, acting as congressional committee members, will
judge the students' performances. The combined scores from the first two
days of hearings will determine which ten classes will compete in the
championship round Monday, May 2, in Senate hearing rooms on Capitol
Hill.
The State Bar Association’s Law, Youth and Citizenship Program
(LYC), the third-largest civics and law-related education program in the
country, administers the nationwide program in New York.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education and directed by the Center
for Civic Education in Woodland Hills, CA, the We the People: The
Citizen and the Constitution program has reached more than 30 million
students and 81,000 teachers since its inception in 1987.
The 77,000-member New York State Bar Association, the
largest voluntary state bar association in the nation, was founded in
1876.
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