(The judges with, second from left, Karen Chilcutt, one of the volunteer organizers)
3:02 PM FRIDAY: We’ve just wrapped up about two hours of an amazing We the People: Project Citizen event at Madison Middle School, with humanities teacher Starr McKittrick‘s students presenting their research on two hot topics – education funding and police/public relations – to a high-powered panel: Former Mayor Greg Nickels, County Councilmember Joe McDermott, and Seattle School Board President Steve Sundquist (all three West Seattleites), plus U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott‘s district director Darcy Nothnagle. The students made spoken presentations (written material also was turned in earlier) and were grilled by the four; then they were rated, with the winning group going to compete in a statewide event in Olympia this spring. For any parents awaiting word of the winners – the afternoon classes, who handled education funding, came out on top. We recorded most of the event on video and will add long excerpts later, so you too can cheer the students, described by Madison principal Henterson Carlisle as the event began, as “the leaders of tomorrow.”

ADDED LATE FRIDAY/EARLY SATURDAY: The video clips show each group of students, four each from the morning and afternoon classes, presenting specific parts of their argument, moving from the first group outlining it, to the fourth group with an “action plan.” The presentations were made in the Madison library, with each student group taking seats at the front of the room, facing the judges (and, behind the judges, the audience including all other participants as well as some parents plus the volunteers and school staffers). We’ve preceded each group with a photo of the hallway display about their topic (which, like the presentations, addressed it in four sections):

MORNING STUDENTS: Their project was described as “Help eliminate police brutality through more crisis intervention and cultural-awareness training.”

For this topic, we recorded the students’ presentation, but not the back-and-forth with judges, who asked some tough questions each time, trying to suss out how well the students knew their topics, premises and conclusions. (Added: To a point that has arisen in story comments, the students’ research, they said, did include meeting with police.) Here’s the first group, from left, Dakota Kantner, Buick McNamara, Lena Le, August Carow, Kyle McGlasson, Dominic Yem:

Second group, from left, Abby Gluckman, Diane Ly, Nafsya Magarssa, Erin Pennington, James Caldwell, Carlos Hernandez-Castro:

Group three, from left, Jamal Abdile, Zakariah Nyberg, Queen Norm, Taylor Latham, Sonja Fridriksson, Kristine La:

And the final group on this topic (with the “action plan”) – Gabriella Vanek, Brandon Tyler, Calvin Nguyen, August Mears, Lincoln Vuong, Nickolas Dyer:

AFTERNOON STUDENTS: The official description of their project: “Stop state government from rerouting federal monies for education.”

For three of these four groups, we were able to record some of the interaction with the judges, including this first group, outlining the problem: Ryan Wilson, Miski Hassan, Peter Forsberg, Alyssa Magcalas, Lina Le, Mecca Amen:

Second group: Carter Mensing, Jacob Woodbury, Danielle Nielsen, Ashley Abriam-Snell, Apisara Krassner, Katrina Carper:

In the third education-funding group, whose clip includes questioning from the judges – from left, Daseray Dang, Simon Tate, Colleen Huynh, Sahra Ibrahim, Kaelyn Johnston, Dylan Ledbetter, Lindsey Hage (who also is a starter on the Madison team playing in the middle-school girls’ championship game Saturday afternoon):

Here’s the final group presenting its solution to the education problem: Left to right, Natalie Williams, Nicholas Barth, Hannah Johnson, Mychael Huynh, Ellen Salenjus, Hannah Eklund. (this clip also includes the interaction with judges):

The judges offered their thoughts while the votes were tallied, and then Sundquist handed certificates to each and every participant, including the adult volunteers:

We’ll let you know when we have more information about the competition in Olympia, at which the Madison students will be the first-ever Seattle Public Schools team competing. The showcase on Friday was the culmination of months of work; one student, just before the event, told us he had edited his report eleven times!