Christopher Columbus High School

A Catholic School for Young Men in the Marist Tradition since 1958
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Columbus Debate takes on the World

The Columbus Debate Society competed in two tournaments over the weekend throughout The Big Easy.

On the Loyola College of Law campus, nine Explorers competed on 3 teams in the first annual Delores Taylor Arthur School World Schools Invitational. Across town, the Debate Society had a lone Lincoln-Douglas debater competing in The Holy Cross School Debate and Speech Exhibition. While the group didn’t come home with hardware, they did have two teams finish in the top 12 and scored some big victories against international competitors.
 
This tournament marks the first time the Columbus Debate Society competes in the World Schools Debating format, the most widely adopted format worldwide. The Explorers faced tough competition from Western Canada, the USA national development teams, Petal High School and local teams from Holy Cross.
 
Andrew Castro, Zachary Fairnington, and Gabriel Llerena finished in 11th place overall, pulling off wins over Western Canada. Also, scoring a win against our friends from the North was the team of Phillip Castro, Javier Hidalgo-Gato, and Marcos Ortega. The format has its own unique challenges, such as the mix of pre-announced topics and impromptu motions, where students only discover the topic one hour before the start of the round.
 
The team took on the following topics at this tournament:
  • Round 1 & 2: This House believes more economically developed countries ought to provide climate change reparations to lesser economically developed countries.
  • Round 3: This House regrets the role of social media as a news source.
  • Round 4: This House believes that half of all legislative seats should be set aside for women.
  • Round 5: This House prefers a world without professional sports.
  • Round 6: This House believes, that postmortem, your body belongs to science.
 
Marcelo Andreu, Nicolas Morles, and Noah Sastoque also competed in Worlds Debate while Pedro Portela competed in Lincoln-Douglas debate.
 
The Debate Society next competes at the St. James Invitational in Montgomery, Alabama in two weeks.
 
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Christopher Columbus High School | 3000 SW 87 Avenue | Miami, FL 33165 | (305) 223-5650
Brotherhood, Faith, and Scholarship define the Marist Brothers Catholic education at Christopher Columbus High School.  By making Jesus Christ known and loved and creating an inspiring academic and extracurricular environment, we prepare young men for higher learning and a life-long commitment to leadership and service through Gospel and Marist values.

Columbus is fully accredited by Cognia and is a member of the Marist Association of Secondary schools, the National Catholic Education Association and the Independent Schools of South Florida.