11:36 a.m. - FARGO - High school students won't be debating the issue of intelligent design at state tournaments, the North Dakota High School Activities Association says.

Association spokesman Bob Hetler said parents and school administrators find the topic too controversial. Instead, he said, the state debaters will use a different topic selected by the National Forensic League for February. It will be announced next week.

The league had suggested intelligent design as a January topic, and other states followed the national organization's recommendation.

The state debate tournament is Feb. 3-4 at Fargo South, with a National Forensic League qualifier the day before. A number of individual invitational tournaments are scheduled next month.

"We were going to exclude kids from the state and public forum debate if we stayed with intelligent design," Hetler said. "Some schools were afraid parents wouldn't allow their kids to do this one."

Intelligent design holds that living organisms are so complex that a higher force must have created them.

States have the right to choose the topics they debate, said J. Scott Wunn, executive secretary of the National Forensic League.

Wunn knows of no other state that is avoiding the topic of intelligent design. Missouri will allow schools to select an alternate topic for tournaments, he said.

"It's up to the states to determine what's in the best interest of their students," Wunn said. "We support the decision of every state association."

Public forum debate is one of three styles of debate competition. Topics, taken from the headlines, change each month, Wunn said. Students prepare to address both sides of the issue.

Of the 15 North Dakota schools that offer debate as an extracurricular activity, about five of them had some reservations about debating intelligent design, Hetler said.

The state association's decision respects "schools that might find this topic particularly awkward and conservative North Dakotans that might find this topic awkward," said Mandan school Superintendent Kent Hjelmstad.

Hjelmstad, a former debate coach, said the process of debate is more important than the topic.

"I think the message is that you want the experience of an academic challenge, but you don't need to have objectionable discussions to get that challenge," he said.

Gayle Hyde, an assistant debate coach at Fargo South High, said intelligent design could be debated without bringing up religion and getting overly emotional.

"I don't think any of the coaches in the state had issues with it," she said.

She worries that waiting for a new topic to be announced in January will give student debaters less time to prepare. She also said North Dakota students won't be able to compete against debaters from Minnesota and South Dakota, who will discuss intelligent design.

"From a competition standpoint, it hurts our students," she said.

Adam Burnside, the debate coach at Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton, said he is baffled by North Dakota's decision. The Minnesota school attends several tournaments across the river.

"It's unfathomable that we're not going to allow some of the brightest, most articulate kids you can find to have an intelligent discussion on intelligent design," he said. "Kids want to talk about it. It's a natural topic."

Fargo Shanley and Sullivan school students were prepared to run with the topic, said Melissa Marek-Donahue, the Roman Catholic schools' debate coach. But because relatively few North Dakota schools have debaters, it's important to be inclusive, she said.

As a result, Shanley will offer two divisions of public forum debate at its tournament Jan. 6-7. North Dakota schools will debate the yet-to-be released topic. South Dakota and Minnesota schools will debate intelligent design.

"Personally, I didn't think it was going to become the issue it has," Marek-Donahue said. "It will be a scramble for us, but we want everyone to have a chance to participate."