Every year Mr. Grunder holds a class debate for his senior Government class. For over a month the groups work hard on making commercials, flyers, a website, and managing a Twitter account to try and make money for their group. This year the groups were The Wonder Party, The Surprise Party, and The Freedom Party. After the debates, the senior and junior classes are allowed to vote on who they thought won and this year The Surprise Party won. 

President Josh Hunter (‘21) and Vice President Marshall Ochiltree (‘21) were the candidates for this year’s winning party. Josh said when asked if he was surprised they won, “No, we prepared a lot and felt confident going in.” The President and Vice President were in charge of 3 speeches, Meet the Press, Rally Speeches, and then the debate. The meet the press was shorter, only a few minutes, and then the rally speeches were 5 minutes plus. All around everyone did a great job on the speeches and they were able to successfully get their point across. 

Marshall put just as much time and effort in as the President, he had to write all the same speeches and be as equally prepared for the debate. They both did lots of research to back up their planks and find facts for arguments. Marshall said the one thing he would’ve changed was “Not having the pandemic so we could have food and microphones and people watch you without having to wear masks.” The pandemic stopped them from having people in the audience and having a food table as usual, so they didn’t get the full experience. All around the debates went really well and all of the groups did a good job and they were all prepared to argue with the other groups.