Dennis Chavez Elementary sixth-graders debate; judged by Belen mayor, others

BELEN—Students in one sixth-grade classroom were able to debate hot topics and were judged by several public servants.

Dennis Chavez Elementary teacher Jacqulyn Yalch’s sixth grade class held a debate on Tuesday, March 11. Belen Mayor Robert Noblin, Belen PD Deputy Police Chief Mario Vallejos and Detective Kiana Garcia were the first round of judges for the topics against school uniforms.

Prior to the debate, the students conducted heavy research to present to the judges in order to persuade them to believing that school uniforms give students in schools and advantage or disadvantage. Ultimately, the team who won was the group that was for school uniforms as they presented a lot of evidence and statistical facts.

A day later, on March 12, the class welcomed N.M. Sen. Joshua Sanchez, along with Vallejos and Garcia for another debate regarding cell phone use. The teams presented an argument for having cell phones, and the other team was against having cell phones.

The team who was against teens having cell phones presented facts, such as hacking, social media downfalls and distraction.

“All the teams did an incredible job at conducting research and presenting this to our panel of judges,” Yalch said. “This is an annual debate ... and we usually ask our public servants to come in and judge this debate for us. The judges were very impressed at how much courage and knowledge the students displayed. The students were so excited to have these public figures in our classroom.”