The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

On Saturday, April 2, eighteen Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School Student Council members traveled to Arlington, Texas to attend the 75th

Annual Texas Association of Student Councils State Convention and came

home with two of the top honors offered by the TASC.

LCM HS was elected

as the TASC Parliamentarian School for the 2011-2012 school year;

winning the election in the first round with more than 50 percent of the vote

over the other two schools seeking the same office.

One

of several requirements that a school must fulfill in order to run for

office is to select a platform which they promote throughout the

campaign. LCM HS chose “Erase the R-Word,” inspired by the

October signing of Rosa’s Law that removes the words “retarded” and

“mental retardation” from all federal legislation. During the combined

campaign time the LCM HS students gathered over 2,000 R-Word pledges.

To

communicate their platform to the over 4,500 students attending the

convention, a seven-minute skit (mini musical) was presented to the

delegation during the Monday morning general session. Afterward, Senior

Brock Duhon, assisted by Dustin Ducharme and Clyde Jones, spent the

afternoon holding round table discussions featuring the 2010 LCM HS

“Bear Bowl.” This session was presented in conjunction with Joel

Maxwell from the Special Olympics “Meet in the Middle” office in Ft.

Worth.

The group was rewarded by having the “Bear Bowl” named by TASC

as one of the Top Ten projects in the State from all those submitted for

the 2010-2011 school year. Students will attend a leadership retreat in

June, where all campaign platforms will be examined and considered as a

State Project for 2011-2012.

“This

was a great learning experience for my students and all of the student

leaders of Texas,” said Stacey Smith, LCM HS Student Council Advisor.

“The message was well-received that a disability does not define a

person. It is simply just a small part of who you are. Through our work,

it is the hope that more schools will take up the torch for “Project

Unify” and “Meet in the Middle” with their own students. The new R-Word

is RESPECT.”

For more information on the “R-Word” campaign and Rosa’s Law, go to www.r-word.org and

http://blog.govdelivery.com/usodep/2010/10/president-obama-signs-rosas-law.html.

Photo: StuCo - Students who represented Little Cypress-Mauriceville High School are:Front

row from left to right are: Katelyn Peasley, Ashleigh Sadler, Emily

Hughes, Conner Hanks, Lyndsey Windham, Destiny Arteaga, and Allison

Walker. Middle Row: Bailey Newton, Lacy Woodard, Caleb Boaz, Kai Taylor,

Savanna Smith, and Bailey Gilbeaux; and top row - Clyde Jones, Brock

Duhon, Harlie Joe Sorge, Zack Sonnier, and Dustin Ducharme.