Groton Debate Champ Qualifies for World Competition

Groton’s Debating Society reached an important milestone at a recent debate tournament at Roxbury Latin.
 

By placing first in the individual speakers category, Society co-president Steven Pang ’22 qualified for the world championship, clinching that opportunity for a Groton debater for the second year in a row. Last year, Jiacheng Kang ’22 competed in the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship.

Previously, a Groton student had not qualified for about fifteen years: Stephen McCarthy ’06 competed in the 2005 World championship in Cyprus, and Sebastian Osborn ’06 competed in Worlds in Connecticut. The 2021 competition, hosted by South Korea, was held virtually; the 2022 championship is scheduled for Lithuania. 
 

Seven interscholastic debate tournaments are designated as qualifier tournaments for the Worlds, said Michael Gnozzio ’03, Groton math teacher and debate advisor. The September 19 showdown at Roxbury Latin was one of them.
 

Besides Steven’s first-place finish, Groton’s team performed well, taking second place overall in the tournament. Arjun Ray '24 and Husayn Ladha '24 won third place among novice teams, with Husayn also placing third among individual novice speakers. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, Jiacheng and Steven won first place among the advanced teams. Their extemporaneous debate topics included whether COVID vaccines should be mandatory for anyone unless they have a medical exemption; whether transgender students should be allowed to participate with gender-segregated teams that match their identity, rather than their gender assigned at birth; and whether politicians should be allowed free speech on social media even if they are promulgating disinformation.

Congratulations Steven, who heads to the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship later this year!