Ryan Smith, a senior at West Haven High School,
has won the first prize of $1,000 in this year’s Connecticut
Foundation for Open Government (CFOG) high school essay
contest.
His essay supported raising the legal driving
age in Connecticut from 16 to 17 as a way to decrease the
number of teen driving fatalities was judged the best of the
entries submitted from high schools across the state in
this year’s contest.
A second prize of $500 was awarded to Brendan
Welch, a student at East Lyme High School, who wrote that
newspapers are superior to television and the Internet for
news on politics and government.
The third place prize of
$300 went to Kerry O’Rourke, a student at Ridgefield High
School. His essay said public officials and candidates for
office must forfeit, in the interests of an informed public,
the privacy granted to ordinary citizens.
Students were asked to write essays on one of
three topics. The topics were:
1.
Explain which of the following you
consider to be the most reliable and useful to you as the
best source of information for politics and government:
The Internet Television Newspapers and magazines.
2.
The General Assembly is considering legislation tightening
regulations on driver licenses for 16 year olds in an effort
to reduce the number of teen age driving fatalities. Would
you favor extending the present legal driving age from 16 to
17 as an effective way to address the problem?
3.
Where should the line be drawn between open government and
personal privacy? Should the personal privacy of public
officials, political candidates and their families be open
or protected?
CFOG sponsors the essay
contest to encourage thought and debate among students on
public and freedom of information issues and to increase
student knowledge of the value of open government in a
democratic society.
Honorable
mention awards of $50 went to Nicholas Tokaki of Valley
Regional High School; Kaitlin Maher, Elizabeth Harris and
Sean Sutherland, all students at Ridgefield High School.
Judges for the contest, all CFOG Board of
Director members, were: Janet Manko, publisher of the
Lakeville Journal; Colleen Murphy, executive director of the
Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission; David Fink,
policy director, Partnership for Strong Communities, and
Stephanie Reitz, legislative reporter for the Associated
Press.
Forrest Palmer, retired newspaper publisher, was
chairman of the CFOG essay contest committee.
