Juvenile Justice ARC team earns trophy

By Brian McBride
Associate Editor

It was a five-member underdog team from the Adolescent Residential Campus in Intercession City that supposedly had no chance against veteran students from the other 12 Osceola County School District high schools in the annual Battle of the Books debate.

Nothing could have been more wrong.

Only in its second year of competing, the team, comprised of students ranging from the 10th to 12th grade from the court-ordered campus, which operates under the umbrella of the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice, dug their heels in the sand and battled, taking home the third-place prize. After making the finals but not placing in 2010, this was the team’s year to take home a trophy.

“They are the wonder team, the underdog,” Thomas Vacek, the team’s reading teacher, said. “At first, they didn’t think they stood a chance. They competed against these veteran (high school) teams coming back year after year.”

Battle of the Books is an academic competition in which students read 15 books over several months and then a panel quizzes them about some of the most “picky” details from the written works, Vacek said. For example, a question could be what was a character drinking at the certain part of the book, which is referred to just by the author, not the name of the book. The subjects of the books this year ranged from humans who only change into werewolves in the winter to teenage boys on death row.

Two teams square off against each other. They hear the question and then members confer with each other and come up with the best possible answer. The battle is scored on a point system based on the answers to the questions.

The competition was April 29 at First Christian Church in downtown Kissimmee.

The first team the ARC team bested was from the Gateway High School International Baccalaureate program, which, according to the IB website, is designed as an academically challenging and balanced program of education with final examinations that prepares students, normally age 16 to 19, for success at university and life beyond. The program is normally taught over two years and has gained recognition and respect from the world’s leading universities, the website stated.

“Most of these (ARC) kids haven’t touched a book in ions,” Vacek said.

When training, team members read any chance they get, Joseph Nixon, ARC program administrator, said, even sometimes facing discipline by carrying books with them on campus, which is prohibited except during leisure time. Most of the team members read all 15 books.

“When they have free time, they are in a book,” Nixon said.

Students on the team could not be identified due to privacy rules through the state justice system.

ARC provides behavioral health overlay services, vocational training, on-site educational classes, social and life skills. The students are court-ordered to the program by a judge with an average stay of six to nine months. According to the website, the program provides a structured residential environment for youth that offers opportunities for personal growth, social development and responsible behavior. Activities include: an onsite education program, vocational education, individual, group and family counseling, behavioral health overlay services, community services, drug education and counseling, employment experiences and structured recreational and leisure activities.

At the end of the competition, it was the teams they had beat who were screaming and cheering the ARC team’s accomplishment.

“It was the best thing that ever happened in their life,” Vacek said. “It’s a high point.”

One might say it wasn’t bad for a team that was actually left off the battle program. Vacek declined to comment on that.

“It just shows the potential that these kids actually have,” Nixon said. “We have some brilliant kids.”

When they returned from the competition with the medals around their necks, they were given the rock star treatment from some of the other students, Nixon said.

“It motivated the entire campus,” he added.

So much, that the school is having its own Battle of the Books in about three weeks.

“I really look forward to next year,” Vacek said.

Vacek said he is hoping the team will be looked at as the one to beat in 2012.

“I think that would be great,” Vacek said.

Meanwhile, ARC will be building a special trophy case just for the third-place prize in the lobby of the campus.

“This is a really big deal more so for the kids,” Nixon said. “It reminds them they can accomplish anything.”