Johnson High School Speech & Debate

Johnson High School Speech & Debate is building a competitive, academic environment to provide Johnson students the opportunity to develop their research, writing, speaking and performance skills by competing with their peers. 

Students in JHS Speech & Debate must compete in at least one tournament each semester. However, the more you choose to compete, the better your skills will be, and the better you will do! The schedule for the tournaments in located on the calendar page of this website. 

Students may choose to compete in any number of events, including PF (Public Forum) Debate, CX (Policy) Debate, LD (Lincoln Douglas) Debate, Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, Interpretation of Prose, Interpretation of Poetry, and Student Congress. Every student will start off competing in Extemporaneous Speaking since it is the basis for ALL of the other events, as soon as you break out of a preliminary round at a tournament, you can choose any of the above events you want to compete in. The speed at which you get to choose the event is completely dependent on you. Success in speech and debate competition is self-paced and self-directed; any student who is motivated to succeed can build the skills and knowledge to be successful!