Brooks Quimby Debate Council hosts high school forensics tournament

For the fourth consecutive year, the Brooks Quimby Debate Council hosted a Maine high school forensics tournament.

Approximately 215 students and 70 judges from 22 high schools took part in the all-day event on Saturday, Nov. 18. A scheduled tournament for the 2006-07 season of the Maine Forensics Association, the judged competition featured events in speech, debate and student congress. This tournament added policy debate to the previously held Lincoln-Douglas and public forum debates.

Bates College sophomore Geoff Shaughnessy of Hanover, N.H., and Rakhshan Zahid of Karachi, Pakistan, organized the Bates College Forensics Tournament with the help of their debate teammates and their coach, Bryan Brito, director of debate at Bates. Lewiston High School speech coach John Blanchette, Bates Class of 1987, helped to organize the speech events for the tournament.

“The Brooks Quimby Debate Council is committed to strengthening its relationship with the Maine Forensics Association. The Bates tournament is traditionally one of the biggest high school tournaments in Maine and we hope to keep it that way,” says senior Vaibhav Bajpai of Calcutta, India, director of public relations for the council. The MFA promotes the development of articulate leadership among secondary students throughout the state.

Schools receiving top tournament honors from the Quimby Debate Council were: Scarborough High School for best overall performance by a team in student congress; Brunswick High School for best overall performance by a team in Lincoln-Douglas debate; Bangor High School for best overall performance by a team in public forum debate; and Skowhegan High School for best overall performance by a team in speech.