By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–The coronavirus pandemic didn’t keep Union City High School students from succeeding again in the West Tennessee Regional National High School Ethics Bowl.
A team of UCHS juniors and seniors placed second in the competition for a second consecutive year last weekend, while another group also fared well.
Thirteen Union City High School students, in all, were involved, along with their coach, UCHS Honors English teacher Joanna Wisener. Another Union City High School English teacher, Katie Parr, assisted with the coaching duties.
Among the members of the second-place team were Lydia Runions, Imani Peat, Matthew Parr, Tammy Huynh, Leah Wisener and Elizabeth Lattus. Peat, Parr, Huynh and Wisener are all seniors and were part of a team to also place second last year in the competition. Runions and Lattus are juniors.
Another group consisting of seniors Emily James and Jason Bone, juniors Arden Stanley, Daniel Edwards and Cedrion Cook, and seniors Carol Ullrich and Libby Wisener also competed. James and Ullrich were on the team last year.
Due to social distancing restrictions and concerns, this year’s competition was held virtually — via Zoom.
An ethics bowl differs from a debate competition in that students are not assigned opposing views, but instead defend whichever position they believe is correct while providing constructive criticism to other participants.
Students again analyzed and discussed real-life ethical issues in front of a panel of UT Martin professors who served as judges.
Among the cases this year were such timely issues as the current coronavirus pandemic, TikTok and the cancel culture.
Mrs. Wisener said UTM judges were “very complimentary of our students in each round.”
UT Martin’s Honors Program and the Department of History and Philosophy hosted the event and had two students at each school participating in the competition as monitors.