Schools
Brentwood Debate Team Receives Highest Honor
The Brentwood High School Debate Team was honored by the National Forensic League for their sustained excellence and participation among the student body.
The Brentwood High School Speech and Debate Team has been granted charter membership in the National Forensic League. Charter membership reflects sustained commitment to speech and debate education over several years, and is the highest honor a debate team can earn from the league. There are about 2,200 paid charter member clubs in the league.
According to Jackie Oaks, a National Forensic League administrator, a school earns charter membership by having 50 members or degrees in a three-year period. Degrees are earned through competition. The charter membership must be re-earned every three years.
Robyn Haug, the team advisor, said the Brentwood team started two years ago with six members and now they're up to 20. They meet on Mondays and Wednesdays after school—and even more often before a big tournament.
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They compete on the weekends, participating in debates and individual events at tournaments. Some events are public speaking related, and some are acting related. The team competes in about 10 different events.
Haug said that the students attend a district competition to qualify for a state and national competition. The state tournament is held in Columbia, MO, and the national tournament is held in Dallas.
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This year the team is participating in the Tuesday Greater St. Louis Speech League Tournaments which rotates among participating schools, including Parkway South and West, Ladue, St. Charles and Pattonville. They also have a schedule of debates and student congresses that run throughout the school year, including the MSHSAA district debate competition.
In Missouri, there is a competition in dramatic interpretation, humorous interpretation, duet acting, readers theatre, one-act-play, prose reading, original oratory, extemporaneous speaking, storytelling and radio speaking. Debate is broken up into cross-examination debate, Lincoln-Douglas debate and public forum debate.
The Brentwood team's website states, "We just try to argue with style. We also like to take people down with our clever wit and intelligence."