Orange County’s South Junior High School earned its second Civic Learning Award of Excellence for its innovative and replicable civic engagement programs and for its broad inclusion of students in civic learning.

California judicial officers visited more than 80 schools and reached a record-breaking 5,200 California K–12 students to promote civic engagement.

This year’s candidates are Associate Justice Joshua Groban and Associate Justice Kelli M. Evans. The California Supreme Court reviews appellate court rulings, which allows the high court to address major unsettled questions in state law.

On September 17, Pacific High School students and staff gathered for a special assembly as Justice Corey G. Lee, Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, personally presented the school with the 2026 California Civic Learning Award of Distinction.