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Senior Debating
 
Photo by Kristan Mouat

Logan Park Successes in the Otago-Southland Russell McVeagh Debating Competition

Connor Seddon —

Logan Park entered two teams in the 2014 Otago-Southland Russell McVeagh Debating Competition

The First team comprising experienced debaters Jacobi Kohu-Morris (Y12), Connor Seddon and Helen Prime (both Y13) and the Second being a development team made up of Y11 students Oscar LaDell, Grant McNaughton and Rauari Griffin.

This yearly competition is aimed at identifying the strongest debaters in the Otago-Southland region and forming a team to compete in the national competition and it was held on Friday 14th and Saturday 15th of March.

Congratulations to the First team, who were Runners-Up to James Hargest High school after debating whether brutal dictators should be granted amnesty in return for relinquishing their positions of power.

Special congratulations must go to Connor Seddon, who was named as a member of the Otago-Southland Debating team for the second year in a row (a very rare occurrence) and to Jacobi Kohu-Morris, who has been selected as one of the Reserves for the team and will also train with the Development Squad.

This is a very demanding competition, with at least five rounds of semi-prepared debating for all teams, on issues as diverse as whether Religious Studies should be compulsory in all state schools to whether teenagers should choose to opt out of all social networking sites.

It should be noted that the coaches for both squads were again ex-LPHS students, and that Logan Park has contributed more members to the University of Otago Debating Club than any other school in the area.

Debating is in good heart at LPHS.