Community Engagement

The 2024 PHSSL State Championship, the culmination of countless hours prepping, competing, and bidding/qualifying—took place March 15-16. We'd like to know your thoughts & feedback! 

Did you experience any inequities? Did PHSSL do something very well and you'd like to commend that? How did you feel about it? In what ways can PAIR work towards further equity and inclusion within PHSSL and beyond? How can we make next year's State Championship better? We'd love to represent your voice, the voice of Pennsylvania speech and debaters, to the PHSSL Executive Board in an official report/letter/petition. The live doc for the petition (subject to change and being updated frequently) is linked HERE.

In terms of equity/tournament policy issues, at the end of the letter will be a list of names (those who fill out this form) in the form of a petition to support official policy change for next year’s tournament. If you’re not comfortable having your name on the document, please do not fill out the form. 

You can see us (PAIR) as PA's HQ for speech and debate-related suggestions, concerns, equity complaints, you name it—run by students & for students. We value your input.

Thank you for your participation in this survey! As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to pairforensics@gmail.com with any questions or concerns.

Whether you're in 6th or 8th grade, experienced or just getting started—PAIR is offering one-on-one coaching sessions for the events of Original Oratory & Informative Speaking, free of charge, for all middle school speech & debaters in the Greater Pittsburgh region. 

These sessions are limited, and the form will be first-come, first-served, and close after a registration limit.

Why are we doing this? Middle school forensics is often a neglected part of the speech and debate community. When we were in middle school, there weren't any specialized coaching sessions offered at reasonable prices taught by current high school competitors (if at all)—and yet a huge part of speech and debate is mentorship. We hope to up the competition level and increase interest and involvement in the Pittsburgh MSF region with this initiative!

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Coachings will consist of your pick of the following, and take place via Google Meet (preferred) or in-person (may be more difficult to schedule): 

Introductory meeting (for everyone): setting goals & expectations

Speech draft brainstorming & editing + visual aid guidance (3x maximum)

Delivery and performance tips (3x maximum)

Trauma is a commonly explored topic in speech events. Whether it be reenacting harassment in dramatic interpretation or sharing personal experiences with racism in original oratory, spreading awareness on trauma and striving for change remains a very real, relevant, and necessary part of the Pittsburgh forensics world. You probably know a famous performance with trauma, have watched one yourself, or even are competing with such a piece yourself.

However, the commodification, misuse, and insensitivity regarding trauma is unacceptable. Excessive and inappropriate use of trauma in-round turns speech and interpretation events into something resembling a Trauma Olympics. Dealing with trauma yourself is one thing, the stress of tournaments another, and having judges "rank" the trauma 1-6 becomes a new subject entirely—not to mention the misrepresentation of the countless traumas of countless people. Trauma is difficult enough to cope with alone—and making it "beautiful" or performance-worthy enough for an audience is far from the solution to ultimate healing.

Thus, PAIR is extending a Trauma Survey initiative to all members of the Pittsburgh & Pennsylvania statewide speech and debate community. It asks for your personal experiences and views on the subject of Trauma in speech events specifically. With the data, PAIR will publish the results into a project and research report. Please refrain from referring to specific tournament/individual names (if published, those names will be censored if included at all). All responses will remain anonymous, and PAIR reserves the right to disregard inappropriate/bigoted responses. 

Thank you for your participation!