The San Diego Imperial Valley League, the organization that manages all San Diego Speech and Debate competitions, is reevaluating Westview’s Speech and Debate standings for next year due to several rule violations during the State Qualifiers. 

According to the 2024-2025 president of Speech and Debate, Phoebe Vo (12), the instability of the club is not a new thing. The club needs a full-time adviser to attend tournaments, as the rules state that teams must have adult supervision for the entirety of the tournaments it attends.

“We had an advisor, Maureen Friend,” Vo said. “She was previously a PUSD employee, and after her retirement, she got an online job, so even though it was still a full-time commitment, her circumstances allowed her to be very involved.”

However, after Vo’s sophomore year, Friend retired, and Speech and Debate no longer had a long-time adviser. According to Vo, that was the turning point for Speech and Debate. 

“Because it is a full-time commitment every other weekend, it’s very difficult for someone to make that accommodation to their schedule,” Vo said. “It’s always been difficult to find an adviser.” 

Vo said that their solution was to find temporary advisers, and they were able to do so primarily with the funds Speech and Debate raised through their summer camp.

“We weren’t able to do the summer camp last year due to the split of the Westview Foundation” Vo said. “They provided student insurance for summer activities, and without such, we aren’t allowed to host on campus. Luckily, we had enough saved up that paying teachers to be our advisers became the solution in my junior year.”

Even though Speech and Debate had enough financially to hire teachers to be their advisers, the lack of a full-time adviser hindered their ability to attend competitions. According to Vo, the number of tournaments that Speech and Debate competed in went from eight or 10 tournaments a year to around two or three in 2023.

“Speech and Debate in other schools are very adult-supported,” Vo said. “The students aren’t involved in the technical things. Usually, each school has a permanent adviser who does the behind the scenes work and goes to every tournament. In this way, they are able to build a good relationship with the league that Westview Speech and Debate was never able to form.”

Vo said that the League relied a lot on the support of advisers, as they are needed to do organizational tasks at competitions and act as a point of communication. Because Westview could not provide that consistent support due to the alternating, inexperienced advisors, the League became frustrated.

“When problems would arise, it would be the executive board, mainly me, personally contacting the League, which they strongly disliked. The League just didn’t view Westview as a school to be taken seriously,” Vo said.

Another issue the San Diego Imperial Valley League addressed with Westview’s team was the large student involvement on a website called Tabroom, where advisers register students with the league to compete in tournaments. However, according to Vo, since her freshman year, the executive members had always registered students for tournaments.

“Because we are not heavily supported at Westview, our goal was to take the burden off of the adviser as much as we can,” Vo said. 

This year, after having to constantly change advisers, Speech and Debate was able to find a full-time adviser who was willing to learn about the competition system. With some stability in the adviser situation, Vo said that she could finally focus on getting students to competitions.

Ultimately, even with the full-time adviser, Vo said that Speech and Debate continued to be  under scrutiny of the League. Because the club was still heavily student-run, Speech and Debate violated judging rules during the 2025 Parliamentary Public Forum State Qualifiers. This led to Speech and Debate being disqualified from the entire State Qualifiers, March 22. 

“That day was extremely heartbreaking for me,” Vo said. “It was absolutely devastating to see students unable to compete. Even amongst our difficulties, I still felt guilty for not being able to avoid this disqualification.” 

The League, however, continues to hold Westview responsible into the following year due to their past violations. 

“The League has terminated our ability to compete for the rest of this year, and they continue to reevaluate such because of our advisor situation and the large student involvement in Tabroom,” Vo said. “There’s not much we can do at this point, but just hope that they come to a positive consensus and see just how dedicated and passionate we are.” 

As Speech and Debate waits for the league’s verdict, the current co-presidents, Daphne Zeng (11) and Evan Russo (11), plan their main goals for the club for next year.

“One of [the main goals] is establishing a solid adviser system so that our club can continue to attend tournaments,” Russo said.

As this year’s season comes to an end, Russo and Zeng have thought of possible solutions for the adviser situation.

“We’re settling on having a two-adviser system,” Zeng said. “We plan to have a teacher adviser who would be willing to let us use their room during school, and then we’re going to have another adviser who is responsible for controlling the Tabroom.”

Though Speech and Debate is a student-run club, they are still a responsibility of the administration, and need its support.

“The experiences I’ve had with this club are invaluable,” Vo said. “Even though Speech and Debate had almost no adult support, I still viewed it as a privilege. If I could go back in time, I would still choose to be president because of the impact it had on me and the impact I have seen it have on others. But, it is no longer the students’ responsibility; it never was. The district needs to evaluate whether or not they have the time, commitment, and resources to keep it, and if they do, something has to change; Speech and Debate needs their support to thrive.”