In the first ten weeks of Speech and Debate, students have focused on preparing for three debate tournaments and the Washington State Model United Nations. Both the policy debate tournaments and WASMUN helped students to develop diplomacy, public speaking and debate skills, leadership, negation, and conflict resolution, as well as expanded their perspectives as democratic citizens. All events also helped students develop their core academic skills, especially focusing on the higher order thinking skills. Students not only enjoyed their events, but also performed very well.

In preparation for our debates, students studies ways in which “The United States Federal Government should substantially decrease its authority either to detain without charge or search without probable cause.” There were four plans novices debated to decrease federal authority. Those cases were Secret Detentions, the Security and Freedom Enhancement Act, Racial Profiling, and the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act. As you can see, it is no wonder that experts argue policy debate is the most academically rigorous of all interscholastic forensic and speech activities. Additionally, since our class was offered second semester, our students only had the opportunity to prepare since February and were competing against students who had prepared since fall. In spite of our seeming disadvantage, we performed very well at all of our events. The first debate on March 11th, Jasmine Whiting and Helene Viger won First Place Novice Team. Jasmine Whiting, additionally won First Place Speaker. Carlos Estrada Alamo and Zack Desmond placed third in the novice division. Carlos also won Second Place Speaker.

In the second debate of the year on March 18th, Jesse Roark and Holly Hagenson placed first in the novice division. Jesse also won First Place Speaker. Michelle Baker and Karly Sapp placed third in that same division. Michelle Baker earned Second Place Speaker.

Last Saturday, the Speech and Debate students polished off the season by claiming the Seattle Urban Debate League City Championship. Jasmine Whiting and Taylor Matalone were not only the first place novice team, but also earned the First and Second Place Novice Speakers. Michelle Baker and Karly Sapp placed second in the novice division and Sam Maloney and Brodie Peterson placed second in the varsity division. Kari Nicholas won Second Place Varsity Speaker.

In addition to the tournaments, our Speech and Debate students also attended the Washington State Model United Nations, April 8th and 9th. In preparation for WASMUN, students researched a country and two committee topics. At the conference, they represented the interests of that country in a committee. Students attended such committees as the UN Drug Control Programme, Disarmament and International Security, UN Commission on Human Rights, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Delegates debated such issues as the Bride Burning in India and the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. In the Special Political and Decolonization committee, two of our delegates, Colter Peltier and Carlos Estrada Alamo earned Distinguished Delegate awards. Tyler Smith, who attended as part of the WASMUN club, earned the Best Delegate Award in the same committee. Roger Morton, who also attended as part of the club, played a key role in negation and comprise in the Security Council.

Please congratulate all of the Speech and Debate students for their hard work and performance so far this semester (I’ve included all names below). Please submit names to Ms. Eades and/or encourage students who you think may do well, enjoy, and/or benefit from Speech and Debate to see Ms. Eades, regarding next year. The Seattle Urban Debate League Summer Debate Institute at the University of Washington is being held August 13-27th and is an excellent learning opportunity for both novice debaters and those with more experience. Any one interested must see Ms. Eades for an application ASAP.

Speech and Debate Class Members: