GHS captures state title in Ethics Bowl competition

Members of the 2020 State Championship Greencastle High School ethics team are (from left) Ben Huff, Maieasha Rashid, Dale Dye Thomas and coach C.J. Shields

Courtesy photo

Greencastle High School has made a name for itself, almost annually capturing academic titles and owning more academic championships than any other school in Indiana.

On Saturday, the GHS ethics team brought home another state championship.

The GHS Ethics Bowl team competed against 26 teams from 13 schools in the sixth annual State of Indiana Ethics Bowl Contest hosted by DePauw University at its Prindle Institute.

GHS has fielded a team for five of the six state competitions, and this year it had three teams compete in the event. All three teams competed in the three morning rounds.

Also of note on Saturday, Cloverdale High School fielded its first team ever in the competition.

Members of Greencastle High School’s ethics team are (front, from left) Bailey Williams, Yuna Court, Bella Green, Rebecca Hebb, Hannah Seaman, Maieasha Rashid and Dale Dye Thomas. In back (from left) are Michael Thede, Connor Crary, Ben Huff and coach C.J. Shields. Not pictured: Alice Howard.

Courtesy photo

Meanwhile, South Putnam had two teams make the final eight, one of which made it into the final four.

The GHS team of Ben Huff, Maieasha Rashid and Dale Dye Thomas advanced to the afternoon’s single-elimination bracket after going 2-1 in the morning rounds. This team, consisting entirely of sophomores, defeated Northview 2 in the quarterfinals, Northview 1 in the semifinals, and Bloomington North 1 in the finals to become 2020 state champions.

Within the next month, the winning GHS team will face off against the winning team from the Chicago Regional via Skype.

The team that wins that match will advance to the National Finals in late April. The National Finals are hosted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The National High School Ethics Bowl (NHSEB) website explains the competition this way: The NHSEB and the regional ethics bowls it supports are competitive yet collaborative events in which students discuss real-life ethical issues.

In each round of competition, teams take turns analyzing cases about complex ethical dilemmas and responding to questions and comments from the other team and from a panel of judges.

An ethics bowl differs from a debate competition in that students are not assigned opposing views; rather, they defend whichever position they think is correct, provide each other with constructive criticism, and win by demonstrating that they have thought rigorously and systematically about the cases and engaged respectfully and supportively with all participants.

Data from NHSEB surveys shows that this event teaches and promotes ethical awareness, critical thinking, civil discourse, civic engagement and an appreciation for multiple points of view.