Last weekend, the MBS Debate Club team participated in its first debate of the year at Ridge High School. There were more than 1000 students at the NSDA Debate and Speech event, and the students competed all day in a style of debate called Public Forum.
The topic was "Resolved: The United States federal government should repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act" which essentially states that companies/platforms are not responsible for user posts.
MBS participants included: Debate Leaders Peter Buchanan ‘25, Lauren Koepff ‘25, and Alex McMahon ‘25 along with club members Carleigh Cofer ‘26, Rebecca Schwartz ‘26, Gabe Nussbaum ‘25, Sean Rizzo ‘25, and William L'Estrange ‘25. They were accompanied by Debate Club Team Coach Dr. Sara Chuang along with World Languages teacher Katie Ziegler, who helped the team as a judge.
Debate Club Event & PR Leader Alex McMahon said that the debate was a challenging and inspiring experience.
“The debate on January 27 was a change of what I was used to in the best way possible. I was not expecting how fast paced it was or how much I had to think on my feet in order to defend my argument and turn my opponent's argument against them,” he said. “I had to adapt through the day, having to change my argument and defend points that I thought had plenty of evidence to defend them, when in reality they did not. I cannot wait for the next debate and hope to have more people come!”