Titchfield High School of Portland beat St Hilda’s Dioscean High of Brown’s Town in the first of the Area 2 police schools debate, at Shaw Park Beach Hotel, Ocho Rios, St Ann. St Mary High is the third school competing for the championship cup; each being the winner of parish debates also organized by the police in the region. St Mary High’s first match was set for Monday, January 19.The moot for the first debate was “The Government pays too little attention to road collisions that have a far greater negative impact on the country’s health sector than is usually admitted or realized.”Titchfield High, with its team of Ricardo Allen, Dwanique Passley and Christian Williams proposed the moot while St Hilda’s Davedene Brown, Abigail Minott and Morgan Davis-Ball opposed.The debate was characterized by reasoned argument, supported by research and the use of a fair deal of statistics, on both sides. However both team repeatedly ran over time in the individual presentations, losing points in the process, despite a system allowed to alert each debater that time allowed was coming to an end and, then, that time had been reached.Allen scored heavily for Titchfield and his rebuttal was masterful and to the point. He had perfect scores on the log of three of the judges but those scores and his total were whittled down by deductions for overtime. Still, his performance and that of the team were enough to take them to a win.Chief judge Franklin McKnight, in commenting on the debate, pointed to the waste caused by the overrun of debaters from both teams and also said the adjudicators felt the definitions of the words and terms in the moot were too dictionary shackling and that there were many more anecdotal incidents and popular media reports that were accessible to the teams. He also pointed to one judge’s comment that St Hilda’s seemed to use argument that supported the their opponents’ position. The judges agreed that the debate was conducted with decorum and the speakers showed respect for each other.The adjudicating panel included James Walsh, educator and retired principal of Brown’s Town Community College; Carol Pinnock, lecturer at CASE, Desmond Sinclair, SDC and Shanna Orr, civilian executive of Area 2. Chairing was Halshane Burke, journalist and presenter from IRIE FM.Custos Norma Walters applauded the efforts of the police and thanked all participants.A large number of police officers were on hand, including departing head of Area 2, Ealan Powell, who reminded all of the belief behind the debates that dialogue and discussion were superior to conflict and would help minimize violence. He said, “we’ll solve the crime problem by getting to the minds of our people.” He called for more parents to support the debates.Also attending were: head of St Ann police, SSP Yonne Martin-Daley; Supt Dudley Scott responsible from Area 2 for the organization of the debate; head of Portland police Supt Wayne Cameron; acting head of St Mary police, DSP Dwight Powell; Cpl Natalee Williams, coordinating officer, who gave the welcome and introduction; Cpl Tanecia Johnson who said she wants to make the debates an island wide event and DSP Denise Shaw McKain who gave the vote of thanks.Shaw Park Hotel sponsored the refreshment and gave the use of the venue free of charge.
