Should they ever become lawyers, The Armidale School’s Daniel Emmery, Samuel Krishan, Stella Maroulis and Camilla Coupland should have no problem winning cases in court, having taken out the senior division of the Australian National Virtual Debating Competition.
Meeting St Edward’s Christian Brothers College from Gosford in the grand final of the national online competition on 22 November, the four Year 11 students successfully negated the proposition ‘That Australia should introduce a statute of limitations on non-violent crimes’ – not just winning the debate, but with it, kudos as some of the best debaters in the country.
“With the topic, currently the rules vary between states, but generally, while there is a limit to the length of time that an offence can be brought to prosecution for minor or summary offences in the local court system, there is a distinction in criminal cases between the way violent and non-violent crimes are treated,” said Daniel.
“We took the position that in terms of the morality, mechanics and outcome of justice, harm to society can be caused as much by non-violent crimes such as coercion, cyber-terrorism, drug dealing, as violent acts can – and victims should have as much chance for justice as others.”
The teams had just one hour’s preparation for the impromptu-style debate, with only 15 minutes of that allowed to research the topic.
The result capped off considerable success in the competition over several years, including, with Jack Coddington, being national champion and runners up in two years of the junior division (Years 7-8) and intermediate division semi-finalists and grand finalists in the intermediate division (Years 9 and 10).
An initiative of the NSW Association of Independent Schools but now run by Masters Academy in Sydney, this year’s competition involved 140 teams from independent, Catholic and department schools in four divisions from six states, running from April through to December. Five TAS teams were entered in three divisions, with the school’s Year 8 girls team making it to the semi-finals of the junior division, having defeated schools from Victoria and Queensland along the way.
Overall, TAS teams won 17 of 23 debates.
The win is the culmination of a highly successful year for debating at TAS. Earlier in the year the school were joint winners of the Federation Cup involving McCarthy Catholic College, Calrossy Anglican School and Farrer Memorial High School, while last term TAS reclaimed the Tri-Schools Shield, a three-fixture competition for Year 6-8 students from TAS, New England Girls’ School and PLC Armidale.
“Around 50 students from Years 6-12 have been involved in debating this year at TAS and the results are a great credit to their developing skills of logical thinking, teamwork and rebuttal, as well as the mentorship from the senior debaters,” Head of Debating and Public Speaking Tim Hughes said.
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