Race and the justice system continue to be big topics of discussion in Kentucky and, of course, across the nation.

One high school junior chose to add her voice to the conversation with a documentary focusing on what's happening in Lexington.

And the pace is getting her national recognition.

C-SPAN student cam started 20 years ago, really excited that we're celebrating our 20th anniversary this year.

And the goal is for students to think critically about issues that are affecting our nation.

Maybe it's their community or even their own personal lives.

So we want them to pick a topic that interest them.

He's going to spend time with this project to research it, get out within in the community and interview people so they can learn more about their topic, look at different perspectives like C-SPAN does, just to get that variety so that you can make an informed decision for yourself.

So that's what we want students to do.

And this reads, Whereas Zoe Washington, a student at Eastside Technical Center, is the 2024 third prize winner in the C-SPAN 20th annual student cam competition.

I want to be an attorney, and both of my classes that I take care at Eastside.

I take criminal justice and I take media arts.

So I kind of wanted to integrate the two, and I decided to tackle the issue of race in the justice system.

And I kind of wanted to look forward at the next 20 years and talk about the changes I would like to see.

Zoe tackled a really tough topic of race and inequity in the system and she tackled it by herself.

We were impressed as a team with the research that she did.

She presented that very professionally.

The quality interviews that she did helped inform us.

We learned about her topic throughout the process, and she wove it all together to tell a really compelling story.

So that's why she was chosen third prize.

And so it isn't necessarily the more people of color committing crimes, it just tends to be more out in the open.

I chose to interview Judge Pamela Good wine and Commonwealth Attorney Baird, and they're both just such historical figures to me.

They're both the first black woman in their profession, and they were just so amazing whenever they were.

I was interviewing them, they were so eager to help me and they were so happy to find that there's someone like me that could, you know, tackle the issues.

I think everything really just starts with awareness.

And so if we can if we're not aware of the problem, then we can't begin to change it or try to fix it.

So I just thought it was really important that I highlight specifically our community in Lexington, Kentucky, because you hear a lot about national issues, but I just thought it was really important to cover what goes on in our hometown, but rarely.

So yesterday in Lexington, the mayor declared Zoe Washington actually Zoe Washington Day, so congrats to her.

The documentary Balancing the Scales, Race and the criminal justice system can be seen by going to the C-SPAN student cam website.