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Amador Valley High School has won the California state “We the People” competition, giving the school’s current competition civics team a place at the national competition in Washington, D.C. in April.

The competition civic team from Foothill High School took second place in the state contest, after winning local and regional competitions in its “We the People” district.

Amador’s win again at the state level will give this year’s team a chance to top last year’s in the upcoming 27th year of the annual We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution National finals.

After three days of simulated congressional hearings on the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights last May, Grant High School of Portland won first place, with Amador finishing second Denver (Colo.) East High School finishing third.

This will be the 13th time Amador Valley has represented California in the We the People national competition. The school’s team won the nationals in 1995.

Members of the “We the People” team, their coach, school leaders and community and parent supporters are now launching a fund-raising campaign to raise over $60,000 in less than five weeks, the cost to go to Washington for the national competition.

“We are totally self-funding and don’t receive any money from the school or district to cover any of the costs,” said Brian Ladd, Amador’s social science teacher who coaches the team. “We need to raise the money by the first of April.”

Jeremy Detamore coached the team from Foothill, where he is a world history and economics teacher.

The students on the Amador Valley High School “We the People” team are Bianca Bacaltos, Eric Chan, Naomi Chan, Alexandra Gonsman, Domnall Hegarty, Daniel Huang, Liana Huynh, Nisha Kale, Almas Khan, Kathryn Kitayama, Shilpa Krish, Emily Lu, Armin Mahini, John Malchar, Kaitlyn Mallie, Kabir Sethi, Lillian Sun, Jennifer Teitell, Kristina Vateva, Rose Wang, Jarry Xiao, Christine Xu, Jennifer Yip, and Tandy Yuan.

Students who competed on the Foothill team were Alyosha Bendebury, Karen Chang, Jerry Cheng, Karbi Choudhury, Jasper Edwards, Kelsey Emery, Priya Gambhir, Olivia Hartjen, Rachel Herzog, Bryce Hwang, Charles Jin, Alex Keir, Fiona Lau, Roxy Moran, Charlie Morris, Marius Mueller, Melissa Muller, Elizabeth Peng, Jacob Richey, Jack Simmons, Jamie Suk, Chanel Vismara, Priyanka Walimbe, Yandi Wu, Alicia Yang, Kevin Yi and Katrina Zhu.

Those wishing to donate to the Amador competition civics team travel fund can send a check to “We the People” Civics Team, c/o Amador Valley High School, 1155 Santa Rita Road, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Contributions sent by mail are tax deductible, with a tax ID #: 94-3062524.

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2 Comments

  3. I think our local Tea Party folks deserve a heck of a lot of credit for bringing an awareness of the Constitution to Pleasanton people. We owe them a debt of gratitude. Without them, the Constitution probably wouldn’t even be taught. Today it’s all Darwin and global warming.

  4. Congratulations, AVHS! Good luck in D.C.! And many congratulations to FHS, too – they worked extremely hard to get to this position.

    To Libertarian –

    You may want to be sure that you actually know the history of this program (at Amador in particular) before making comments on the Internet, so as not to disparage the proud alumni and parents of the We The People competition who have been putting in effort for years.

    If you were to actually have gone and educated yourself about the program before posting, I’m guessing that you’d have been shocked to find that Amador has had the program in place for more than 20 years, and Foothill for quite a number of years as well…both pre-dating the “Tea Party” influence, if that’s what you’d like to call it. Alumni from the program have gone on to become lawyers, doctors, engineers, teachers, military officers, etc. Amador has medaled at the national level several times, including taking the national title in 1995. Again, all of this was before the “Tea Party” – just to be sure that you understand.

    Please stop insulting the amazing teachers, families, students, and school communities with your drivel.

  6. Yes, I know the Amador kids are winning, and the programs have been around for a long time, no doubt because the Constitution is no longer being taught in the school to make way for things like Black History Month and other dubious topics. But surely it is recent Tea Party presence that is giving the youth of Pleasanton a firmer grasp of the Constitution. It’s the Tea Party influence that explains why the kids are winning as they are.

    I’m tired of Democrats like Civics Alum trying to re-write history, and do so in a way the excludes the Tea Party’s inestimal contributions both nationally and locally. Credit should be received where credit is do. I think all local Tea Partiers can take a huge amount of credit for these kids’ achievements. Who’d be around to correctly interpret the Constitution were it not for the Tea Party? I rest my case.

  7. Congratulations to AVHS team winning AGAIN!!! The incredible number of Ca state championships is a record in itself!!! Amazing. Each member of the team is to be congratulated for all the effort and practicing to be the best and fastest…such devotion is to be honored. Two decades of state repeated victories is awesome, then to top it with repeated brilliant showings nationally is remarkable. Continued success!!
    Sorry Libertarian spouted off for several reasons. Demonstrating his ignorance to the victorious performance history for one. Siding with TP who does not honor personal freedoms to the degree of true Libertarians, which indicates, maybe neither of them do after all.

  8. Small Pleasanton blurb in this morning’s Times. Amador is going to the national for the 13th time in 25 years!!!! AND, 11 of those nationals finished in the TOP THREE !!! How great is that? Trumpets please…….
    Amador WON the national contest in 1995….18 years ago! Oh, how time flies when we’re having fun!!
    To confused libertarian or tea party Rip Van Winkle who was asleep two decades ago, Pleasanton students have been Constitution students & experts for decades.
    BTW this week TP turned five years old. (I won’t call it a BD, since there is no reason to celebrate the destruction it has caused). We’ll excuse you, since possibly you were still wet behind the ears to national functions. So much to learn…..

  9. This article and forum should be limited to acknowledging and praising the efforts of the students and the staff at AVHS and Foothill for a job well done. The hours of effort and commitment have paid off and Pleasanton should be proud of both schools and support them to as great an extent as possible in the national competition. It’s a great reflection on the students, staff, school district, and community.

  10. Honestly, can’t you recognize trolling when you see it? Libertarian is obviously being facetious.
    YAY, Amador! This program is one of the things that makes jaded politicians proud to be Americans again. Bravo! Go get ’em at nationals.

  11. Congrats to the Foothill and Amador students. But to the adults at the helm of this effort, with a 13-year track record, why do you ignore fundraising until you get to this point year after year? You know, build a little character by fundraising for a goal? Every year Jeb writes this story with the same closing paragraph: Yay, team won. But team did not plan to win. Team could not be bothered to fund raise all year like other student teams who work equally hard to achieve success. So, once again, team has their hand out looking for someone else to fund the trip. It’s like you’re grooming these kids for a life in political office. How admirable.

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