Private school student wins Nevada spelling bee

LAS VEGAS (AP) - An eighth-grader at a private school in Las Vegas has won the Nevada State Spelling Bee for a second straight year.

Amna Raza of the Omar Haikal Islamic Academy defeated 28 other competitors to win the competition sponsored by the Las Vegas Review-Journal (https://bit.ly/1hvBWOx ).

She won by correctly spelling the word “paraphrasia,” which is a speech defect characterized by incoherence in the arrangement of words.

She’ll represent Nevada at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C., from May 25-31.

Second runner-up was Eshaan Vakil, a sixth-grader at Hyde Park Middle School in Las Vegas.

Raza’s parents attributed their daughter’s success to hard work, her teachers and Allah.

According to its website, the academy she attends has an enrollment of 190 students who have a love of Islam, a record of proven intellectual ability and a drive for academic success.

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Information from: Las Vegas Review-Journal, https://www.lvrj.com