UPDATE: NO THREATS. PLEASE DO NOT HARASS THE ADMIN, TEACHERS, OR SCHOOL. THANKS

Policy Debate has always been an integral part of the Barstow School's legacy. For 17+ years, the Barstow School has participated in National Circuit Policy Debate through the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA). We have gone to the TOC several times, but we had some rebuilding years after COVID and lost a lot of people. We finally have gotten to a squad size of about 20 and had a couple teams who were hoping to get to the TOC this year and next year.

Unfortunately, Barstow's administration informed the students and faculty yesterday that we will be only focusing on local debates next season, and for the future. This crushed the debaters, alumni, and everyone associated with the debate team. Along with this shift in direction, the team will no longer have our beloved assistant coach, Lucia Scott. They have decided there is no longer a need for the coach who taught the team all we know. While they are not our head coach, they coached the varsity squad and got us all to where we stand now. They go above and beyond for each and every one of us and make sure to meet us where we're at. our head coach has refused to defend the program from this cut, and appears to have actively encouraged its removal. We ask that our coach encourage the enlargement of debate, not its removal.

We ask that you sign this petition to ask Barstow to bring back the national circuit team for the future, with compromises like a cap on the amount of school days missed or a few less tournaments. We simply ask that the students and ALL of the team be informed of the decisions before they are made.

We will not tolerate this. They are cutting arts programs left and right at too many schools. We don't want to find out who's next.