Members of the debate team from Rogers International School in Stamford beam with satisfaction at the conclusion of the tournament.

By Jennifer Posner, CTMSDL

On Saturday, January 25, 2020, two hundred forty-four middle schoolers from twenty-two Connecticut schools came together at Middlebrook Middle School in Wilton to debate the motion: This House would require corporate boards to have women members. Proposition prevailed in 54.6% of the debates.

The team of Claire Flynn, Samantha Hatcher, and Jessica Mulligan of Westfield Academy won the final round and Samantha Hatcher took the first place speaker award. Results and box scores can be found on tabroom.com.

Many thanks to all the individuals and businesses that made this event possible: hosts Mike Panoli, Katie Durkin and their team of Middlebrook volunteers; supporter Greenwich Branch of the English Speaking Union and its Director Robert Whitby; tab team members Everett Rutan, Bruce Johnson, Beth Gusfa, Hema Shivram, Usha Khandelwal, Uma Subramnian, Abbas Badami, and Bill Fusco; and, our judges, including twenty-eight high school debaters.

Our next tournament will be on Saturday, April 4 at Eastern Middle School in Greenwich. Our first championship tournament will be on Saturday, April 25, location to be determined.

As always, feel free to email me  (jenposnerctmsdebateorg)   with any questions, concerns or suggestions.