Capital punishment a hot topic for CAEP debaters

LYNN – Capital punishment is a topic that has been the subject of many heated disagreements in public, political and religious arenas for many years and was again the hot topic of conversation at the College Application Education Project’s (CAEP) debate held Thursday.The local non-profit youth organization holds debates throughout the year to help students prepare for college by doing research and polishing their public speaking. While subjects such as the MCAS test have been hotly debated in the past, capital punishment sparked interest from more than a dozen students and featured strong arguments both for and against.”People who kill people have a good chance at being rehabilitated while they are in prison and maybe going on to make a difference in their lives,” argued Lynn English High School student Ivan Ventura.”Capital punishment persuades people from committing murder and it is less expensive than putting someone in prison for life,” countered LEHS senior Jessica Hernandez.The debate took place at the CAEP headquarters inside the Zion Baptist Church on Adams Street Extension. The event is one of many educational activities that take place during the summer at the program where area middle and high school students receive tutoring and guidance from the CAEP staff.Along with members, CAEP hires high school and college students to work at the organization as a summer work program and those students also took part in the debate.”The debate has three parts, the research, then they have to write the arguments and then they have to get up there and present them,” said CAEP Founder and President Arthur Akers. “That’s the most difficult part, some of the students don’t want to argue much, they will do the research and get some thoughtful things down but they don’t want to argue. It is just like a college debate. They need to know the ins-and-outs of the subject and how to present it.”Although CAEP does not have a religious affiliation, many of the students called religion into play when making their arguments both for and against capital punishment.Many in favor of killing violent criminals referenced capital punishment in the Bible, while those against argued that only God should decide when it is time for someone to die.Students were graded based on their knowledge of the topic and presentation, and were asked to give their timed response in a prompt manner.”We have had debates on the MCAS before and that was real lively, so we thought this time capital punishment might be a good choice because you never know when it will come to light again,” said Akers. “It is just like any other argument, it can come up again at any time at the state level and the kids need to make an informed decision and they need to know how to persuade people with their argument.”Since moving to the Zion Church earlier this year, CAEP has continued to expand their programs and services for students. Akers says the next big event will be a poetry open mic, possibly at a public venue in the city, where students will be able to recite poems for a cash prize.Despite the success of his program, Akers says CAEP is struggling like many non-profits in this economy and is continually looking for donors to ease the cost of the programs.”We are struggling right now,” Akers said. “But we are trying to let people know what we do here and grow our programs.”