Debate Team Continues to Thrive - Online!

By Head of Community Engagement Gordon Mathis

Under the leadership of coach Cheryl Despathy, 18 UL students are participating in the debate program - both on campus and at home in continuous learning. The program focuses on policy debate with students acting as policymakers. Selected last winter, the current topic of the school year is criminal justice reform, with a focus on the abolition of the death penalty or funding for police departments; students are especially eager to research and discuss these topics after living through the social upheaval of the summer of 2020.  

The entire program has gone virtual this year, thanks in large part to the National Speech and Debate Association’s sponsoring of a special Zoom program, which allows two debaters for the affirmative, two for the negative, and one judge to appear on the screen simultaneously. All students debate from home, which creates greater equity among participating schools, although Galloway students are quick to point out this also creates a disparity between those who have internet access and those who do not.

There are two tournaments per month in the debate season, which runs through March, for a total of eight competitions. Galloway placed both 1st and 2nd in the most recent virtual tournament, hosted by Sequoyah High School in Canton. All tournaments are fully online with Galloway’s class serving as preparation for the virtual competition.

There is also a thriving debate program in Middle Learning under the direction of Tommy Sharp. Many students “graduate” from that program and continue to participate in the UL program. Faith Finley ‘16 and Jessie Dietz ‘20, two alumni of Galloway’s debate program, have continued to debate in college at Northeastern University and Mrs. Despathy's alma mater, Emory University.

There’s no debating that the students have made their coach and their school proud!