Dennis Chavez Elementary students debate issues as local officials judge

 BELEN—Opinions were disputed and judged recently at the annual Dennis Chavez Elementary sixth-grade debate.

Jacqulyn Yalch, the DCE teacher who sponsored the debate, invited several public figures to judge on two different days.

“Our first debate was about the advantages and disadvantages of students owning a cell phone,” Yalch said

The judges of this debate were Mayor Belen Robert Noblin, BPD Deputy Chief Mario Vallejos, Detective Kiana Garcia and Lt. Steven Hall with the Valencia County Sheriff’s Office.

The students did incredible when trying to persuade that cell phones were either beneficial to students or they were hurting students,” Yalch said. “Ultimately, the students who were against cell phones won the debate. The judges were pleased at the amount of knowledge the students obtained during the two week period of preparation.”

The second debate that was held had students argue that artificial intelligence is helping our society or hurting our society. The judges for this were Valencia County Commissioner Joseph Bizzell, Deputy Chief Vallejos, and Detective Garcia of the BPD.

In this debate, students who were for artificial intelligence won. They had great evidence in reasons to support the claim that artificial intelligence is a “tool for our society, but it does need to be used responsibly,” Yalch said.

“I enjoy bringing in public figures to my classroom each year because these are memorable moments for older elementary students,” she said. “I love to have these public figures involved with our youth and they seem to really enjoy it each year.”