Walbrook High School - Debate Team

Debate Team

In 2003, Walbrook's debate team was featured in a 60 Minutes segment to talk about the team and how their coach, Angelo Brooks, had inspired them to go to college. Along with the students at Walbrook, it helped the Baltimore Urban Debate League gain national attention as well for the progress it had made in the Baltimore area.

In September 2006, Ofc. Angelo Brooks and Ofc. Eugene Fields Jr, teachers in the Criminal Justice Academy, sued the school system and the Police Department, saying they were victims of retaliation resulting in their removal and the disbanding of the debate team. The suit accused Maisha Washington, who was principal of the Homeland Security Academy, of "conspiracy ... to destroy the debate program." The text of the lawsuit also says Washington and Major Mary S. Young, who oversaw the officers, knowingly relayed to their supervisors false information about the job performance of the officers who sued. The defendants in the lawsuit include former Mayor Martin O'Malley, Police Commissioner Leonard D. Hamm and former schools Chief Executive Officer Bonnie S. Copeland. In late 2006, Fields pulled out of the lawsuit, but the case in still pending in District Court with Brooks.