West Roxbury Schools Impress Judges, Take Home Trophies at Boston Debate League Tourney

Last weekend more than 250 Boston Public School high school students and 70 BPS middle school students participated in rigorous, academic debates about space exploration politics in the Boston Debate League‟s second city-wide tournament of the year.

“The second tournament of the season was a thriller,” said Steve Stein, Executive Director of the BDL. “The extra month of preparation showed, and judge after judge reported being blown away by the debaters‟ speaking skills and sophisticated arguments.”

The Westie Debate team, comprised of Urban Science Academy, Brook Farm/Media High School students had an impressive showing. In the varsity division, Westie debaters won four of the top 20 speaker awards: Sam Landis (9th place), Akeem Borneo (11th place), Heaven Reda (16th place) and Avery English (20th place).

In the junior varsity division, CJ Johnson and Gabe Montero won the first and second place Speaker Awards. Of the top Novice Speaker Awards, Alex Paul won 6th place and Stephen Johnson won 12th place.

“Coaching a debate team in Boston is an important part of my teaching experience,” said Westie coach Alan Humbert. “I overheard a debater say 'I always knew I was smart, and debate is the place I can show it.' I enjoy being part of that place.”

The Boston Debate League (BDL) is a non-profit organization that works in partnership with the Boston Public Schools (BPS), supporting academic debate teams in high schools and middle schools and training teachers to make debate a regular classroom practice. The BDL is comprised of 15 schools to provide Evidence-Based Argumentation curriculum and support 17 school debate teams.