The competition among Bay Area debate teams is fierce, but three girls from Presentation High School are striving to make sure their voices are heard loud and clear this week at the National Speech and Debate Association National Tournament.
Juniors Megan Munce and Aarushi Sahejpal and senior Kaitlyn Sierra are in Alabama for what is considered by many high school teachers and students to be the most respected competition of its kind in the country. Every year the tournament draws approximately 3,500 competitors from around the United States and abroad who face off in more than a dozen categories, such as informative speaking and congressional and policy debate.
“This is the apex of one’s career; every single speech and debate kid dreams of attending this tournament,” incoming team president Sahejpal said in an interview prior to the tournament. “It’s something I’ve dreamed of doing since sixth grade.”
Presentation High is represented for the first time in informative speaking and world schools debate; some categories are personal challenges that the girls initiated.
Sahejpal was skeptical this year about her chances of qualifying for the first time in congressional debate. She had always engaged in public debate but said a dearth of girls in general at tournaments made trying to set a precedent important.
“There’s not a lot of all-girl teams that compete or travel at all, in general. I feel like we’re one of the few that actually does that,” Sahejpal said. “We’re just trying to push other girls to do the activity.”
Even if they only see one other girl at a competition, Munce said “we will scream our heads off” to encourage and show support for her.
“Every time you see a girl winning, even if she beat you to get there, you feel a little bit of solidarity,” Munce said. “When you see a girl win something, it’s not even like there’s another person winning something. It’s like that’s almost me winning something because that’s another woman winning something.”
Tournaments are just a “microcosm” of an inequitable world the girls are learning to navigate, speech and debate director Shawn Matson told the Resident.
“Our society and our world is dominated by men,” Matson said. “We go to competitions and we have to face the idea that men are more authoritative speakers and that men are more credible speakers.
“Those are things that our girls are facing in their real lives every day, but also in speech and debate,” he added. “It’s something they face, but they get support, and they have a team where they learn how to face those issues, and learn how to overcome them and frankly, learn how to beat those people.”
The recent proliferation of fake news websites has also compounded the girls’ constant challenge of establishing their credibility, but reaffirmed their commitment to finding the facts.
“You start to question your sources,” Sahejpal said. “You’re questioning a lot of things. Us, as individuals, we have more questions than answers a lot of the time, but it’s our jobs as debaters and teachers and people who are looking for knowledge to question.”
Certain styles of debate don’t require competitors to cite sources outright, but Sierra said fake news has changed that. Establishing source credibility for evidence in a debate round is crucial but sometimes challenged, particularly when a controversial topic such as climate change is being argued.
“In recent times I’ve seen the importance of really saying your sources,” Sierra said. “(I’m) seeing how it is important that you’re telling others where it is that you’re getting this information from, so that they know it’s credible.”
Since long before fake news was an issue, the speech and debate community fostered an environment where Matson said honesty and logic still reign.
“Our community is sort of a bulwark against the alternative fact and against the fake news and against the chaos of never knowing what the truth is,” he said.
But sometimes there’s value in learning what an opponent thinks, even if the sources are shaky, Sahejpal said.
“They have different beliefs than I do, and that’s just how society is,” she said. “You just kind of have to debate it, and I feel like we’re educating other people. They’re educating us about different ideas, so it’s just more of an exchange of ideas, and through that process we find the truth.”
