Middle School Debate Team Excels in Second Tournament of the Year

Walker’s Middle School Debate Team had its second tournament of the year on February 27. The motion was, “This House would ban law enforcement from genetic genealogy searches of consumer databases.” It was a difficult topic that pitted security against privacy and required quite a bit of research. Three teams from Walker’s competed in three rounds of debate. All three teams participated in the most competitive Open level. Captains Charlotte Furia ’25, Nellie Kenney ’25, and Zaria St. Clair ’25 won two of their three rounds and ended up placing 10th out of about 60 Open teams. Charlotte was 13th overall in speaker points and Nellie was 14th.

Walker’s second eighth-grade team of Mae McCall-Sorkin ’25, Val Lawson ’25, and Amber Furtado ’25 won one round. The seventh-grade pair of Carly Wilkes ’26 and Siya Singhal ’26 also won one round. This was Siya’s very first debate and she placed in the top 25 in speaker points. Thank you to Siya’s dad, Sumit Singhal P’26, for participating as a judge. We cannot hold these tournaments without volunteer judges!

The next debate topic is about standardized testing. Middle School students are encouraged to join the debate team!