11-year-old Ilonggo Wins U.S. Speech Contest

by ALEX P. VIDAL

San Diego, California - The life story of Australian naturalist, zoologist, animal and wild life conservationist and television personality, the late Stephen Robert Irwin, simply known as Steve Irwin inspired Nathaniel Dean Baldevieso Viejon. His inspirational speech on Irwin won him the 2009 Modern Woodmen’s Speech Contest trophy recently in Aurora, Illinois.

Known to his family and friends as Nate, he is an 11 years old, Grade V at Schneider Elementary School in Aurora district, Chicago. Nate, an animal lover, wrote his contest piece with the guidance of his mother, Jenie. Irwin has touched and impacted his life and that of millions of others all over the world.

Modern Woodmen of America developed this contest in 1948 to offer students opportunity to develop skills in clear thinking and public speaking. It is now an important event in schools across the United States.

This year’s topic is "A person who has touched many lives". Modern Woodmen asked student-speakers to help uncover and tell story of individual who embodies the spirit of the tagline - "Touching Lives. Securing Futures."

Contestants are judged based on material organi-zation, theme and subject adherence, structure, content, logic and color; delivery, presentation, voice, pronun-ciation, enunciation, gestures and poise; and overall effectiveness that scored impression and effect.

Nate, a well rounded student, is consistent North American Honor Roll in Math and Reading at Kumon Development Center, a member of school band and league player at Compton United Soccer Club. He is the eldest son of Jenie Baldevieso and Victor Viejon of Barotac Viejo and Santa Barbara , Iloilo.

Police Arrest Brutal Beating

Suspect of Fil-Am Teen

On a sad note, experts denounced the brutal beating by a 15-year-old black student of a 15-year-old Fil-Am student inside Lithia Springs High School in Douglas County, Georgia. The beating was recorded in a cellphone video.

The victim did not report the incident that happened in December 2008 to authorities for fear of reprisal. His parents pulled him out from the school and brought to the Philippines. Sgt. Jesse Hambrick of the Georgia Sheriff Office confirmed three students, including the culprit were arrested and charged with felony.

The suspect, captured in the video using a cellphone punching, kicking and stompting the head of the victim in the school’s hallway, is now facing two felony charges, said Hambrick who condemned the incident.

The video was downloaded in the internet which enabled policemen to trace the identities of the suspects after they saw it. Zach Cielo was afraid to report the incident for fear of retaliation. His parents decided to bring him home to the Philippines.

Douglas County Schools System Supt. Don Remillard was shocked over the incident and is ready to expel the suspects.

Cielo was worried about retaliation. He didn’t tell anyone what happened to him - including school officials or his mother.

"I didn’t know what will happen to me," said Zach Cielo. "He could’ve put a clot in my brain...I could’ve died. But I lived through it." "I have made (the) final decision, I am taking them out of the school and out of the country," said Lulu Cielo, Zach’s mother.

Going against her children’s wishes, Lulu Cielo has decided to send Zach and his 12-year-old sister to the Philippines to go to private Catholic school. "She’s doing it for the better of me and the family," said Zach Cielo. "I understand where she’s coming from."

"He was one step away from an aggravated battery which would have been if he had broken his spine, or actually killed him. You saw the kick to the head," said Chief Deputy Stan Copeland with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

The suspect is in his mother’s custody. The Douglas County Sheriff’s Department hope prosecutors will come down hard on him to show others beatings won’t be tolerated. /MP