SULC Marshall-Brennan Competitors representing the East Baton Rouge Parish School System were this month:   (left to right)  Timothy Johnson, Jeffrey Tobias  and Lacey Uhiara of Istrouma High School; Jonathan Reed, a Southern University Law student; and Tierra Harrison and Dilton Anderson Jr. of Scotlandville Magnet High School.  Not pictured:  Camera Whicker of Scotlandville High.

 
At the national competition this month, Whicker of Scotlandville High School (left), the top winner of the area’s regional competition in November 2010, met Mashayla Hayes from Central High School in Louisville, Ky. (right).  Hayes won second place for Best Oral Advocate at the national competition.

The six high school student competitors from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System representing the Southern University Law Center (SULC) Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project reached the semi-final round at the national Third Annual National Marshall-Brennan High School Moot Court Competition, April 1-3, in Philadelphia. 
 
“This is the first time that all participants from one chapter reached the semi-finals,” said Vice Chancellor Russell Jones, director of the SULC Marshall-Brennan Program.  Student participants included:  Istrouma High School students Timothy Johnson, Jeffrey Tobias and Lacey Uhiara and Scotlandville Magnet High School students Dilton Anderson Jr., Tierra Harrison and Camera Whicker.
 
At the competition, these students presented arguments in the case of Andrews vs. Belding, which involved a high school female student who wore a tuxedo to school for four days to protest the omission of her friend’s photograph from the school’s yearbook.  The photo was omitted because the friend chose to take the picture in a tuxedo. The girl was suspended for five days and prohibited from running for president in the school’s election. The case focused on the issues of symbolic speech and whether the wearing of the tuxedo by the student at school was a substantial or material disruption of the school’s educational process.
 
The SULC Chapter of the Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project was founded in 2009, and Jones is the founding director. Project partners who made the trip possible for the high school students included: Louisiana Legislative Black Caucus, attorney Dwayne Murray, Rep. Patricia H. Smith, Curtis Soderberg (CSRS), professor Wendy Shea (SULC) and the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society.
 
In November 2010, Whicker won the area’s regional Third Annual SULC Marshall-Brennan High School Moot Court Competition.  Following Whicker, the five additional competitors qualified to participate in the national competition by receiving the highest composite scores from the judges.