The Black and White

by August Pittman

Cries of “Bloody murder!” echoed through the halls of Smithfield High School at the most recent debate on February 8.

If you’ve been following Pilgrim High School’s very own debate club, you might recall that the club participates in tournaments through the Rhode Island Forensics League (RIFL). After much practice and work on creating cases, the team meets at the venue for the month’s debate.

The RIFL is a league participating in parliamentary style debate. Teams of two debate in an organized debate with three main parts. One member of the team serves as Member of Government/Opposition (MG/MO) while the other serves as Prime Minister/Leader of Opposition (PM/LO). 

Then, the two teams debate with a judge listening. First, the Leader of Opposition or Prime Minister starts with the team’s opening speech, before the Member responds to the other team’s arguments while also creating their own, and finally the LO/PM wraps up the debate with a rebuttal.

While the structure is mostly ordered, it does have quirks.  Teams can heckle the other as long as they are witty, brief, and rare (but it’s rarely done). In addition, teams can call what are called Points of Order, essentially calling out rule breaking to the judge. These include overtime, the use of specific knowledge, and what you might have been wondering about, Bloody Murder (when a pencil is brought to the stand). If you’re wondering, the explanation for that one is that passionate debaters in Parliament would accidentally stab people while arguing.

As a first year team, the Debate Club is entirely made up of novices. Novices participate in their own division, and receive the advantage of making a case in advance. Next year, students remaining in the Debate Club will move up to varsity, where they’ll only have 30 minutes to make a case. 

Fortunately, students have been getting plenty of practice for varsity. At the third round of all debates, such as this one, both varsity and novice have to make a new case on the spot. This simulates varsity for novices.

This was a tough debate, with only the top 18 speakers recognized. Addison Mendoza placed 17th and received recognition, so congratulations are in order!