The Thomas Jefferson debate team pulls through with another second place showing.
By Lauren Abrams
photo by Kevin Fleming
On December 5th and 6th, the Thomas Jefferson Speech and Debate team took on George Washington, West, and Manuel high schools and Martin Luther King Middle College on their home turf.
After proving they were perfectly qualified to finish in the top three during their first and second competitions, the team managed to tie with Manuel for 2nd place in their third meet.
The debate was held at Thomas Jefferson High School, which added an extra distraction to the team’s main focus. “The team isn’t used to having to worry about competing and being a host. They did a fantastic job though,” said Teacher Sponsor Wauneta Vann.
The competition used 20 classrooms as well as the auditorium to fulfill the space necessary for all the different teams.
Byron Martinez-Moore took third place in the overall speaker awards, and Asia Dorsey took 6th place. Lorraine Seals-Williams not only walked away with an 8th place overall speaker award, but also was the only TJ competitor to receive a Judges Choice Award. “Having the debate at TJ made everything more comfortable. All the schools are improving, so the competition is getting pretty fierce. I’m confident that the TJ Debate Team will continue to strive to win,” said Seals-Williams.
Other highlights from the debate include Asia Dorsey and Nadine Louis qualifying for the Quarter Finals as a team, as well as Manal Harim and Danite Reda. Harim and Reda continued onto the semi finals, where they contributed greatly to their team as a whole.
After struggling to retain their winning streak, the Debate team proved they are not giving up without a fight. “We’ve come a long way since the beginning of the year, and I only see us improving in the future. We seem to pose a big threat to the other schools, so I hope they’re ready to work just as hard as we are,” said Dorsey.
