Brown County Junior High School has made it to the state competition in the We the People contest.

BCJHS placed third in the central region after today’s regional competition, which took place entirely virtually. The students were not together when they competed, after COVID-19 shifted the entire school to “red” status on Wednesday night.

Teacher Michael Potts and the students all watched the award show separately tonight via Zoom.

“I feel good,” Potts said about his team’s showing. “I know that we have a lot of work to do. I knew going into it that we weren’t as prepared as we have been in years past, but I felt really good about their performance today. And I never go into an award ceremony thinking we’ve got it covered, but I really thought they did a great job today, and they put us in a really good position to be in the Top 3.”

Fishers Junior High School placed first in the central division, St. Richard’s Episcopal School placed second and BCJHS placed third.

Unit 4 of the BCJHS team — Averi Vaught, Sophie Mathis and Adah Gredy — was the highest-scoring group from BCJHS and received a school unit award.

The We the People program teaches students about civic competence and responsibilities. The course emphasizes American history and constitutional issues, including current events and applicable court cases. Then, at We the People competitions, students testify in mock congressional hearings before panels of professional judges.

In the past 11 years, Brown County Junior High School has won six We the People state championships, two national runner-up titles and two national championships.

The state competition will take place Dec. 9 and 10.