“GOOD AFTERNOON, EVERYBODY. WELCOME to today’s debate. My name is Jerrell Wright and I will be your chairperson. Next to me is Kenneth Brown, who will be my timekeeper. Mr. James will be our a-a-adj-adjudicator. The topic for today’s debate: Chicago Public Schools should not take away funding for after-school programs at Booker T. The affirmative team will be led by Maria Rivera and the negative will be led by Stephanie Lee. The speaker for each side will have three minutes only. There will be a single bell at the halftime mark and a double bell when you have thirty seconds left. When the final bell rings, the speaker must stop talking and go back to their seat. Now, I would like to i-i-introduce the first speaker on the affirmative team. Maria Rivera.”
Maria walks into the middle of our classroom in between all the desks that were pushed to each side for both teams. Unlike me, she isn’t shaking or sweating. She don’t even look a little bit nervous. Today she has her baby-blue frames on that match the stripes in her shirt that match the patches in her pants that match the shoelaces in her Vans. I see her take the biggest breath the same way she does before she does anything that she’s really excited about. Ms. Berry walks into the class and leans against the wall next to where Uncle Edwin and Auntie Julia are sitting. They flash their thumbs up when the principal looks their way.
Maria looks over at me and sticks her tongue out. I flex my bicep, and we both laugh at the inside joke nobody else but C.J. would get. I start thinking about everything that went down over the past few weeks. Nothing is really that different yet at Booker T. A bunch of kids that stay after school till their parents get off work still make it hard for kids to focus on anything but protecting themselves from flying dodgeballs and backpacks flung onto tables without looking. And a lot of times that’s still where Mr. James has to take the kids in debate to practice. Who knows what’s gonna happen next? All I know is the next time something’s happening around us that don’t seem fair, we got ways to tell people it’s not okay and that somebody needs to do something about it. And there are people listening to us.
“My name is Maria Rivera, and today I’m going to be talking to you about why CPS should not take away our funding for after-school clubs at Booker T.,” she says before pausing to make sure her flash cards are in the right order. She looks back at me and puts them in her pocket. Then Maria turns to Ms. Berry. “My name is Maria Rivera, and today I’m going to talk to you about why you shouldn’t let CPS take away our clubs’ funding.
“Firstly, art is in everything. People painted the walls. People wrote the books in our library. Somebody came up with the ideas for this building. This school wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for creativity. If you let CPS take Art Club from us, maybe one day they’ll even think this school shouldn’t be here, either.