Speech and Debate, a club at north, is sponsored by English teacher, Michael Brown. The club was founded by Brown four years ago and it became a class three years ago.

“I did speech and debate in high school my freshman and sophomore year before moving to a school that didn’t have it. Then I picked it back up when I was in college and knew that when I got a job teaching that I would want to start one or if they had one help out with it,” said Brown.

Speech and Debate has their first event of the year coming up in the first week of November. Some of the varsity members have been preparing since the summer for this competition.

“We’ll possibly travel to Maryville, MI if we get approval for travel. We are still waiting on that until the budget opens but there are competitions every weekend for the most part,” said Brown.

The club is funded by a grant through the school district. As they go further along into the school year, the club will have to start doing fundraisers and hosting tournaments here at North to fund the program. Other than food at tournaments, the club is expense free for students.

Katie Morse, 12, is Speech and Debate’s president. Morse heard about the club her freshman year over the intercom, so she decided to join because she’s, “a person who loves argumentation.”

Through Speech and Debate, Morse has ”been able to talk about issues that bother [her].”

Morse said that she was very quiet and reserved during her freshmen year. She had dealt with some issues she wasn’t comfortable talking about.

“Over the past few years I found that through speech and debate, I found my way of advocating for myself and other people. I don’t think I’d have been able to do that if I hadn’t seen other people doing it too,” said Morse.