DAVIE, FLA. (WSVN) - A Nova Middle School teacher broke the big news to her class in a creative fashion.
“Ya’ll know hangman right? Yeah. Alright cool,” said Kristin Murphy a law teacher at Nova.
Mrs. Murphy, who was awarded Broward teacher of the year in 2019, had her competition law class guess what it was letter by letter. Once the message is clear students were quick to solve it.
“Hunter?” said Mrs. Murphy.
“We the people state champs,” said Hunter.
“Yes!” replied Mrs. Murphy.
The class erupted in cheers as they found out they won the We The People state competition.
The competition held at the start of February by Florida Southern College challenges middle and high school students from across the state on their knowledge and understanding of the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights.
“It’s basically constitutional questions, the kids prepare a four-minute opening statement answering the question that’s being asked, and then for the next six minutes they have to answer questions that are thrown at them. They have no idea what they’re going to be asked and they have to be able to intelligently answer questions related to the constitution and apply it both in the past and in the present,” said Mrs. Murphy.
The grueling task of being grilled on constitutional law doesn’t faze her students they love the challenge. Some find the unique experience a must for every student.
“We’re doing mock trials and that doesn’t happen in every other school, that’s not a regular thing. Were doing mock trials, were doing mock congressional hearings, we went to the courthouse just last Friday and I think in this class it’s actually the fourth time I’ve been to the courthouse cause we’ve gone on a field trip there the competitions we have there. It’s just such a fun and different experience I wish every kid could get to experience this even if they’re not interested in the field of law it’s just such a good experience and it’s different, it’s new, it’s great,” said law student Chloe Haygood.
Now that they earned their title as state champs they have their sights set on becoming national champs at the We The People national finals held in Washington, D.C.
The national finals are made up of each state’s first-place winner and the kids will face a similar challenge this time presenting to 72 judges.
On top of this experience, students would also get to explore the nation’s capital and even get to meet with elected officials and community leaders.
Just to show how much this means to Mrs. Murphy’s students the trip to D.C. conflicts with the school’s end-of-year field trip to Universal Studios.
“So our kids have to in their 8th-grade year choose to give up their last middle school trip to universal with all their friends to go to nationals, so this is a massive deal for the kids right so were really just trying to make it happen,” said Mrs. Murphy.
Before they can look forward to that Mrs. Murphy and her students face a daunting obstacle. Shortly after finding out, they won the state competition the school learned they need to provide the deposit for the trip by March 8th.
With so little time to get the deposits in the school finds itself short of funds to make this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity happen.
“It’s hard because when she came to talk to me I figured we had a little bit of time and then she said no we need to give a deposit I think it was $600 deposit per child. There are 35 kids and on my budget I can’t afford it you know so we started looking at ways to raise some money and that’s where we are right now because I would love for all of them to go and actually I mean its the opportunity it’s golden,” said Nova principal Rayner Garranchan.
A golden opportunity they don’t want to miss.
So the kids got into fundraising mode. Looking for ways to fund their shot to be number one in the country.
“We’re going above and beyond trying to raise this money. Yesterday my friend Ava and I, we spent the time making flyers we’ve been sending them out, I’ve posted on my story, my mom has posted on her story, we’ve been sending it out to our family our friends, we’ve really been trying to raise this money because we really want to go this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and to go to Washington, D.C. and competing in nationals would mean the world for this whole class,” said Haygood.
The class has created a GoFundMe to raise funds.
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