Seniors witnessed Bethel’s very first SCA presidential debate in the school’s cafeteria on October 2nd. While most seniors had no expectations before the debate began, they left the cafeteria fired up, hoping that Bethel’s first debate will not be her last.

The debate, which ran for 30 minutes during Gold 2,  highlighted the qualities and views of three candidates: Cameron Love, Kamiah Tisdale, and Dominick Barham. They were asked a total of five questions ranging from challenges facing the Class of 2025 to planned activities. This debate was supposed to help students determine who should be senior class president.

 ”Usually, when we do stuff like [this], it’s more of a popularity contest,” senior Xavier Tisdale stated. “But since we had a debate, it gave the senior class something like ‘Oh, we should really vote for this person,’ not because of their name or anything […] but someone with the best ideas at heart.”

The debate helped many make their decision, and the next day, Cameron Love emerged victorious as the new president of the senior class. That being said, some students did express reservations.

“I feel like all the questions were kind of vague,” senior Jordan Hart observed. “[They were] very short and not specific enough for them to differentiate their answers…they all kind of had the same ideals… so [the answers] felt muddled.”

A few observers agreed with Jordan’s assessment. They felt that the questions were not clear enough to draw out distinct and unique answers from each candidate, so the candidates seemed to blur together. 

“I think the candidates could have been more elaborate,” senior Jordan Valentine said. “I kind of observed that there was a bit of confusion from the candidates, from understanding the question… [the moderator] could’ve made it a little more clearer.”

For seniors who voted, the main deciding factors were the candidate’s proposed ideas and suggested events.

 “I feel like senior year should be about the experience and making memories,” Xavier concluded. “The key factor was really what the ideas were…Cam won me over with the idea of the Senior Olympics, and I really want to see how that goes.”

The debate turned out to be a memorable experience for all, no matter who the winner was. Not only did the debate generate excitement, seniors found it a nice change of pace that increased their civic-mindedness. 

“The outcome isn’t what I had hoped for,” candidate Dominick Barham admitted. “But [I’m] happy to have Cam as our class president.”