Hidden Oaks Student Wins District Spelling Bee

ALACHUA COUNTY – Students who competed in their schools and took top honors in spelling were welcomed to Terwilliger Elementary School on Wednesday, Feb. 16, to compete at the district level in a highly-competitive spelling bee. The competition drew high-achieving elementary and middle school students from 34 schools throughout Alachua County.

Thirteen rounds of competition were nerve-wracking for students and their families. Patrick Gallagher, who patiently listed word origins, defined the meaning of words and used the target words in sentences several times throughout the afternoon, periodically asked the students and their families to take a deep breath to help break the tension.

Gallagher, who teaches AP Language and Composition at Buchholz High School, patiently explained the procedures for students to follow at the beginning of the event and the students worked in an orderly manner to appear before the judges at the microphone to spell their words. Some of the students seemed to handwrite their word into one of their hands with the other to use muscle memory to help them come up with the correct spelling.

The event judges had a small bell at their table and rang the tiny tinkling sound whenever a word was misspelled. Students who missed a word went to their seats and waited until the end of the round to join their families in the audience or leave the auditorium.

By the fifth round the group had been whittled down to seven students. By the seventh round only four students remained. By the eighth round only two students remained. By the ninth round the two remaining students, Abhith Kasala from Lincoln Middle School and Jeevan George of Hidden Oaks Elementary School, were correctly spelling “epilepsy” and “reggae.” Round 10 words were “resplendence” and “espousal.” Round 11 saw both boys correctly spelling “complacency” and “paisley.” In Round 12 Jeevan George correctly spelled “antics,” but Abhith misspelled “mottled.”

Jeevan George was given one last word to spell in Round 13 and it was "churn,” which he spelled correctly and that ended the head-to-head competition of two of the best spellers in Alachua County.

Both boys received a medal to commemorate their first and second place wins. George also received an engraved plaque.

Due to his win, George will be representing this district as Bee Champion at the 78th Annual First Coast Regional Spelling Bee on Friday, April 1. This event will take place via Zoom.

Alachua County School District representative Don Fitzpatrick explained how that will work. “The student will receive a Zoom link along with the other spellers from our region. He and the other spellers will be un-muted when it is their turn to spell.” The winner of that competition will go on to compete in the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C.

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