South Florida Students Run For Their Lives After Feared Threat At National Competition. Now Slam National Speech And Debate Association.
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DES MOINES, IA (BocaNewsNow.com) (Copyright © 2025 MetroDesk Media, LLC) — The fear has become anger for local students attending the National Speech and Debate Association competition in Des Moines, Iowa. As BocaNewsNow.com reported Thursday afternoon, as many as 100 students from Palm Beach and Broward County fled to the streets of Des Moines when it was believed a mass shooting was about to unfold in the city’s exposition center as someone stormed the stage during the competition. It turned out there was no gun — just a disturbed person. But students reaching out to BocaNewsNow.com say the National Speech and Debate Association badly mishandled security — and access — to the thousands of students taking part in the nationwide event.
Student Lucas Himawan from Cardinal Gibbons in Broward County wrote the following and shared it with BocaNewsNow.com. The photos in this article are also from Lucas Himawan:
>> I am a student competitor from the Broward County Speech & Debate Circuit in Florida who photographed and video-graphed the aftermath at the Iowa Events Center earlier this afternoon. I was in the main convention center at the National Speech and Debate Tournament watching the Final Round of Humorous Interpretation when I saw the threat rush the stage followed by everyone running.
He stated, “Who wants to hear a joke?, followed by “knock knock, who’s there?” before kneeling down with what was later discovered as nothing from his bag. This led to the performer who was meant to compete, to shout “run away” through her microphone alerting everyone this was not part of her speech and instead an active threat. What seemed like a threat at the time led to mass panic and mass evacuations. I witnessed people being trampled, teams crying into each other’s arms, coaches and fellow competitors hiding between tables and in bathrooms. There is no other way to describe it other than chaos.
I want to take a moment to criticize the NSDA for downplaying the situation. Although no one died, and that is what is important, many faced sprained limbs and concussions, not to mention the emotional toll it has taken on our community. It is too early to tell how this will impact the association and its community as a whole, but students from middle school all the way to senior high were present and had to experience something that has become all too familiar in this country.
Instead of postponing the other events for today within an hour a revised schedule was posted urging people to attend. It was only when all of the finalists for the next event refused to compete combined with outrage on social media, that they chose to reschedule. Mind you, there were no metal detectors at any entrance or exit, and apparently no security at the mainstage stairs. The only form of security present were a few event guards and a ribbon system. In which every competitor, parent, and judge was required to wear an issued ribbon by NSDA to gain entrance and distinguish your rank. This system was extremely flawed though as anyone could request a visitor ribbon and gain access to any part of the expo. The (person believed to have made the threat was a former competitor) and likely aware of how a national tournament operates and likely manipulated his way in.
It was only when they were allowing people back in to grab their stuff that they pulled out the dozen metal detectors hidden in storage. You would think one of the largest tournaments in the world would afford more priority to security, with close to 10,000 overall. Just because no one died the NSDA should not be underscoring the impact this incident had on everyone. <<
Students from schools across the region, including American Heritage in Delray Beach, have students competing at the week-long event. Many tell stories of running without adults to area hotels to hide while the situation unfolded Thursday afternoon.
We should be ashamed of ourselves! It seems to me that anyone should understand that more guns lead to more shootings, and panic when a possible shooting threat appears. Our children should be more important than money and politics.
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