‘Wall of Honor’ ceremony held at Brookestone Village

acrimony.

One event, for example, is tailor-made for budding politicians. Student Congress mimics floor debates on Capitol Hill. Students draft, introduce and debate bills and resolutions throughout the season. Floor debates reflect current hot-button issues, which may include climate change, gun control and immigration.

Brown said many students opt to join speech or debate as an alternative to sports. For example, his assistant coach, Jimmy Miller, quit football his freshman year “and found speech and debate to his liking,” Brown said.

“More emphasis needs to be put on the importance of communication skills in the schools,” argued Brown. “Unfortunately, many non-athletic activities we have are in danger of being significantly curtailed or outright eliminated because of a shortage of faculty sponsors or coaches, and the costs of operating what are commonly viewed as non-revenue-generating programs.”

While interscholastic speech and debate programs generally thrive in Omaha metro area suburban school districts (Millard North attracts 200 students to speech and debate every year), programs are becoming extinct elsewhere.

In addition to coaching, Brown has written several thousand articles for the Midlands Business Journal since its founding in 1975. He has also taught U.S. history and political science at Metropolitan Community College.

As for Walter Paul – after graduating from Prep in 2014, he attended Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., and later worked for the Urban League of Nebraska, before pursuing a law degree at Yale Law School. He graduated last year and now practices law at a global law firm in Chicago, far removed from the terrors of his childhood in Uganda.