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Posted: Wednesday 1 October, 2008 at 2:42 PM

    Rotary Liamuiga crowns Spelling Bee Champion amid controversy

     

    By Melissa Bryant
    Reporter~SKNVibes.com

     

    BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE Rotary Club of Liamuiga hosted its 5th Annual Primary School Spelling Bee Competition last night (Sept 30) at the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium, and 12-year-old Shenequa Stevens of Cayon Primary was declared the winner; a decision that both angered and confused the audience.

     

    This event marked the official end of the Silver Jubilee Independence calendar of events and featured the brightest students from 19 of the island’s public and primary schools.

     

    Chairman of the event, Eustace Warner, noted that this year’s format was changed to include more schools in the ‘knock-out’ round of the competition. “This year we tried to adhere to the format of the Scripps National Spelling Bee, because our ambition is to eventually send someone to represent the Federation at this international spelling competition.”

     

    The competition began smoothly, with the contestants displaying their mastery of sophisticated words. However, controversy arose early in Round Three when viewers believed Kevisha Seaton of Edgar T. Morris Primary had spelt “accelerate” incorrectly. But, she still advanced to the next round, a move which baffled the audience.

     

    With four contestants remaining, debate was yet again stirred when Bethany Greene, the representative from Beach Allen Primary, was one word away from being declared the winner.
     
    However, as she spelled her successive word incorrectly, she did not achieve that goal, even though she was the only person in the prior round to have spelt her word correctly.

     

    According to Delcia Bradley-King, who judged the competition along with Rita Cable and Dr. Ismay Taylor, the rules stated that “if at the end of a round, only one person has spelled their word correctly, he or she must spell another word and, if it is correct, they shall be declared the winner. 

    Otherwise, if their second word is spelled incorrectly, all spellers who were present at the beginning of the round will remain and a new round will begin”.

     

    This announcement came as a surprise to the audience, who thought that Greene should have won at that stage of the competition, based on her being the only contestant who had spelled her word correctly. Nevertheless, the competition continued.

     

    In the penultimate round, Seaton [Edgar T. Morris] was eliminated, although her spelling of the word “ludicrous” was correct. 

    The judges realised this error in the final round and brought Seaton back into the competition to compete with Stevens [Cayon Primary] for the top prize after the representatives from Beach Allen Primary and Molineux Primary were eliminated. This act infuriated the spectators even more, and some of the 300-plus members of the audience walked out as a sign of protest.  ~~Adz:Right~~

     

    Stevens was eventually declared the winner, with Seaton and Greene as the First and Second Runners-up respectively. She received a $2 500 prize, while her school [Cayon Primary] received a cheque of $2 000. 

    SKNVibes spoke with the winner, who displayed immense joy and wished to thank all of her teachers, friends and family for their support.

     

    According to Warner, although the competition may have had a few “sketchy” moments, he was still very pleased with the outcome. “The Rotary Club is very concerned about literacy, and we try to embark on programmes that we feel can enhance the development of our nation’s youth.”

     

    In defence of the judges’ decision, Bradley-King said, “We brought Ms. Seaton back into the competition in the final round because we realised that we had made an error and she had indeed spelled ludicrous correctly. The judges stand firmly by our decision and we assert that the competition was judged fairly and accurately.”

     

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