A five-member team from Camp Kilpatrick, located near Malibu, won first place in the Academic Bowl sponsored by the County Office of Education’s court school system.
By David Wallace/Special to The Malibu Times
Goaded by the poetry and drama programs offered by local volunteers, many teenage inmates of Camp Vernon Kilpatrick near Malibu have performed slam poetry readings and improvisational shows at the Malibu Stage Co. to sold-out audiences.
But that is only part of the success being achieved by the young adults at the camp. Last week, a team of five Kilpatrick teenagers won first place in the 12th annual Academic Bowl sponsored by the County Office of Education’s court school system.
“It was our first time in the finals, and everyone was shocked that we even made it,” said Rodney Davis, team coach and a teacher at the probation camp’s school for a decade. “We were like the Jamaican bobsled team at the Winter Olympics … except, of course, that we won.” On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors also officially recognized the team’s accomplishment. The team was presented with 3-foot trophy for winning the event.
The subject for the four teams participating in the Academic Bowl finals, as well as the regional qualifying contests between the 19 county juvenile probation camps, was “Earth, Space and Beyond.” There were three parts to the competition: a “Jeopardy”-style quiz that included questions about physics, chemistry, biology and space taken from state standardized tests, five- to seven-minute presentations about creating a colony on another planet, including political, economic and social issues, and a debate over whether exploration of space is worth the expense. The judges were comprised of academics as well as employees of the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
Davis’ team ranged in age 16 to 18, and included two African-Americans, one Hispanic, two Caucasians, and an Asian alternate member. (Other than that, the identities of probation camp inmates cannot be revealed except with juvenile court permission.)
“We started training last March,” Davis said, “both individually, as a group and sometimes with an entire class.”
“There is also a county Academic Bowl Web site where they could study and find practice tests,” Davis added. “When we got closer to the competition, we would meet after school and work on the debate and, just before the event I had the team for the entire day.”
“We have a lot of talented kids here,” Davis said, “and all I really did was just direct those talents. One particular boy carried us all in the debate portion. One of the judges, a prominent lawyer, told him that he would have a real future in that area.”
“These kids have made bad choices and have paid for them, but this kind of academic competition shows them that they are college material,” Michael Hurtado, a member of the probation commission and emcee for the event, told the Los Angeles Times. It also demonstrated, as both teachers and staff at the event agreed, not only academic proficiency but also an ability to work as a team and commit to a goal.
“We’re trying to give them both an education and the experience of a different world than they’re used to,” Davis said. “For some of them this is the most important accomplishment in their lives. The mother of one of our team members told him to try to win because he had never won anything. After the win he told me he would now be able to call his mother and tell her he is a champion.”