Little earns CHS debate honors

Senior will represent B-A in public forum at North Alleghany

Kerri Little is excited to have one more chance to publicly argue before graduating in June.

Cory Parson, Staff Writer
April 5, 2016

The school-wide CHS debates took place before in early March, and the results are in.

Senior Kerri Little has been chosen to travel to Pittsburgh and argue against the best debaters from all across Pennsylvania.

2016 Bellwod-Antis CHS schoolwide debate

What is CHS you might ask? CHS stands for “College in High-School,” which basically means that you can take a high school class and obtain a college credit. This particular class focuses on argument fundamentals and tactics that help someone become more persuasive while in a debate.

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I’m just happy that my high-school debate career isn’t over yet.

— Kerri Little

Each year, schools enrolled in CHS argument and rhetoric get a common debate theme to focus their debates on. This year’s topic was “The United States government should promote personal well-being.”

Bellwood-Antis in one of only two schools not from the Greater Pittsburgh to offer CHS argument. The other is Johnstown.

“I didn’t expect to be selected,” said Little. “Everyone performed well. I’m just happy that my high-school debate career isn’t over yet.”

“Kerri has such a strong background as a competitive speaker in a variety of forms,” said CHS argument and rhetoric teacher Mr. Naylor. “From public forum to mock trial, she’s pretty comfortable in almost any form of organized arguments.”

Little will now attend a training session with Pitt argument instructors and other CHS winners Thursday at the University of Pittsburgh. She will then participate in the large public forum debate April 28 at North Alleghany High School.

Little’s debate this year was on the topic “The sale of human organs would improve personal well-being.” She argued on a team with Maria McFarland for the affirmative, facing Kala Wooten and Jules Lusk for the negation.

Mr. Naylor feels as though the debates this year were very strong and everyone performed well.

“Their debate was exceptional. Pitt couldn’t have gone wrong, no matter whom they chose.”