Sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Smriti Rajan and Bhaavni Krishna debated in the ‘Out Rounds’ at the Old State House in Hartford on April 18th.

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Sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Smriti Rajan and Bhaavni Krishna debated in the ‘Out Rounds’ at the Old State House in Hartford on April 18th.

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Sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Smriti Rajan and Bhaavni Krishna debated in the ‘Out Rounds’ at the Old State House in Hartford on April 18th.

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Sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Smriti Rajan and Bhaavni Krishna debated in the ‘Out Rounds’ at the Old State House in Hartford on April 18th.

Provided by Smriti Rajan

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Sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Smriti Rajan and Bhaavni Krishna debated in the ‘Out Rounds’ at the Old State House in Hartford on April 18th.

Smriti Rajan

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Debate Team Takes Home Win

Smriti Rajan, Guest Writer

On April 18, sophomores Meera Kannan, Taruni Pendyala, Bhaavni Krishna and Smriti Rajan competed in Out Rounds with the debate team at the Old State House in Hartford. This was the final leg in a tournament of finals comprising the quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals, with the winner of each debate moving on until two teams were left to face off in the finals.

“I was so thrilled when I realized that both South Windsor teams made it to the finals. It was the first time the high school debate team had competed in a state-wide tournament like this, and it was so gratifying to see that it would end in a victory – no matter which team came out on top,” said Krishna.

The team was debating about the motion of whether Connecticut should end qualified immunity for police officers in civil lawsuits. Debaters had to prepare for, and argue, both sides of the issue. For the final debate, Kannan and Rajan were on side affirmative, supporting the resolution while Krishna and Pendyala were on the negative side, against it.

The Out Round is a continuation of April 4th’s qualifier event which took place at Stonington High School. At this event, all teams from Connecticut debated two rounds. Based on scores and wins, the top eight teams moved on to the quarterfinals.