Off the Field: Constitution Team

by Madison Newton

The RHS Constitution team brought home first place at the Constitution Project State Competition. The team consisted of members of RHS Speech and Debate and was broken into three distinct divisions: the CSI team, the trial team, and the press team. The trial and press team both won first place in their respective categories.

The competition is sponsored by the Missouri Supreme Court and focuses on bringing student awareness to the First, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. All of these amendments come into play under the umbrella of crime scene investigation, journalism, and trial advocacy.

“These areas are actually extremely connected under the Constitution…there are selected criteria that the team must meet, but it mostly comes down to our understanding and implementation of those same four amendments,” said team coach Karissa Talty.

The competition begins with a mock crime scene, where the CSI team will collect evidence and the press team will try to find and report the most accurate story. This information gathered is taken back to the trial team, who will use the resources available to defend the case.

While some schools have after-school programs and even classes to prepare for the competition, most of Republic’s preparation was done during the advanced debate class while preparing for speech and debate tournaments. Trial team member senior Victoria Ogbeifun said, “We met with several mentors in order to prepare, including a former detective and a federal prosecutor.” The team met with mentors who helped prepare each individual group.

Republic won group awards as Best Trial Team and Best Press Team, and junior Sarah Lawrence was recognized as an upholder of the First Amendment with respect to journalism. She will be awarded a scholarship from the Missouri Press Association. Talty received the Witherspoon Award for leadership.

The RHS Constitution team’s first place win not only demonstrates their understanding of the Constitution, but the drive behind their success. Talty said, “Honestly, critical thinking skills, communication skills, and problem-solving skills are really what the competition comes down to and those are the things that we do each weekend in debates. Really, these kids are just rock stars!”