Webb Schools place first at Los Angeles County Debate Championship

Webb earned first place at the Los Angeles County Debate Championship at LILA in Burbank last weekend. Webb’s debate teams won 14 of 16 rounds at the competition – a 87.5% win rate.

All four Webb teams placed in the top six teams at the tournament:

• 1st place: Jenny Wang ’24, Miranda Li ’27 and Mia Li  ’27
• 2nd place: Hanbo Xu ’25, Grace Zhu ’25 and Aiperi Bush ’24
• 4th place: Mirabel Raphael ’24 and Isaac Nicolosi ’25; Brianna Stodghill ’26 is also on this team but had to miss the tournament
• 6th place: Kathy Duan ’25, Eric Luo ’25 and Dayun Suh ’24

Mirabel Raphael ’24 earned second place individual honors. She was only three points shy of the first place speaker award. Kathy Duan ’25, who organizes a debate program for middle schoolers, placed fifth. Miranda Li ’27 was recognized with a novice speaker award.

The competition featured four debate topics. Students were able to prepare for two topics and the other two were impromptu.

The pre-announced topics were:

1. On balance, Bidenomics is not working.
2. US states should eliminate their stop and identify laws.

The impromptu topics were:

1. Students should be permitted to use AI to complete college admission applications.
2. Biden should not add to the border wall.

Webb would like to thank Joycelynne Palmer-Stodghill P ’26 and Michele Raphael VWS ’89, P ’24 who served as judges at the Los Angeles County Debate Championship.

Photo by Michele Raphael ’89, P ’24