This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

There Is No Debating Mother Teresa Regional School!

Mother Teresa Regional School team won top honors at the Garden State Debate League this past Saturday. Students won first and second place team honors as well as several other awards.

Mother Teresa Regional School students took home top honors at the Garden State Debate League Tournament on Saturday, January 27th at Barkalow Middle School in Freehold.  Two of the school's five teams went undefeated earning first and second place.  Seven of the school's fifteen debaters placed in the top 20 debaters earning the second and third place speaker spots. The school won first place Tournament award and tied for second for School Award.

The teams have been preparing since mid December for this tournament. Students are given five topics and must prepare for each topic both the proposition side and opposition side. This tournament topics included, Ban Energy Drinks, The US should no expand drilling off the East coast, Wikipedia does more harm than good, The Indian Caste system was good for society, and FEMA's responsibilities should be turned over to the state. Mother Teresa Regional school had five teams of sixth and eighth graders competing.

The first place team consisted of Steven Clagett, Shane Dolan and Grace Molloy, with Gabriela Compagni, Tabitha LaRocca, and Valicia Stoeckel earning the second place spot. Rachel Kovach, Kate Manning, and Michael Rosa placed eighth out of the over 20 teams who participated.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Seven students placed in the top twenty speakers out of the more than 60 students who participated.  Shane Dolan (2), Grace Molloy (3), Steven Clagett (10), Steven LoPorto (11), Rachel Kovach (13), Valicia Stoeckel (16), and Gabriela Compagni (18) were the students who earned speaker awards.

Teacher and Debate Coach Katey Patrizio noted, "Debate is such a great experience for our students to hone their public speaking skills as well as learn how to research a topic and present opposing points of view."  The team meets weekly and is looking forward to hosting the next debate on March 16th and preparing to represent the league in California.

Find out what's happening in Middletownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Mother Teresa Regional School is a Catholic school serving students in the Bayshore area from PreK 3 to 8th grade. For more information on the MTRS Debate Team or Mother Teresa Regional School visit mtregional.com or call (732) 291-1050.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?