Story by Owen Hou
Staff Writer

Photo by Batia Lou
Contributor

SPHS’s Speech and Debate team competed in Debate State Qualifiers hosted by the South California Debate League (SCDL) on Saturday, Mar. 1 at La Cañada High School.

The program included 18 students who participated in three events: 13 in Congressional Debate, one in Lincoln-Douglas debate, and two partnerships in Parliamentary Debate.

Five students — seniors Samuel Whitman, freshman Lucia Lois, and juniors Aidan Liu, Sarah Kano, and Ciara Riley, qualified to move to Congressional Debate finals. Both Parliamentary Debate teams, consisting of seniors Emilio Lois and Paige Tang, and seniors Elisa Argus and Kasra Ghaffari, moved onto finals. Of the finalists, three were able to qualify for the statewide debate tournament: Whitman in Congressional Debate and partners Lois and Tang in Parliamentary Debate.

In Congressional Debate in particular, there were 60 entries, and only 16 of those 60 made it to finals. Out of these 16, however, five students from the debate program managed to reach finals. 

The Speech and Debate state qualifiers will go to the state tournament held at Culver City High School from Friday, May 2 to Sunday, May 4, which will conclude their season.