Grady High students 'tap' for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016, ATLANTA : Grady High School debate team member Harrison Gray listens to Monday's debate between Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump while watching with other debate members at Grady High School Monday, September 26, 2016. TAMI CHAPPELL/SPECIAL TO THE AJC

SEPTEMBER 26, 2016, ATLANTA : Grady High School debate team member Harrison Gray listens to Monday's debate between Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump while watching with other debate members at Grady High School Monday, September 26, 2016. TAMI CHAPPELL/SPECIAL TO THE AJC

The AJC's Eric Strigus is hanging out tonight with the Grady High School debate team and sends this dispatch:

The 30-plus students at Atlanta’s Grady High School listened quietly when the Clinton-Trump debate began.

Most of them are on the school’s championship debate team and eager to see the candidates clash Monday night.

Speech and debate coach Mario Herrera asked the students to tap their desk if one of the candidates made a good point.

Tap, tap, tap the room went, along with some laughter, in response to several Trump one-liners. Clinton got some taps and laughs when she said “Donald, I know you live in your own reality.”

The loudest noise came when Trump remarked “bigly” about his economic plan.

The students analyzed everything from Clinton’s choice to wear red to Trump’s blue tie.

“That is smart,” Sam Lombardo, 17, a senior, said of Trump’s fashion choice.

Herrera told the students they would be asked to explain which candidate won and why afterward.

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