What should happen if a student becomes offended/uncomfortable during a debate in a classroom setting?

I’ve always liked debates, so naturally these discussions were some of my favourite parts of high school and college. During high school and college there were multiple times that because of one or two students becoming offended during these debates, the teacher/instructor just decided to cancel the entire thing and the entire class missed out because of these student(s) that couldn’t control their emotions.

One of these debates was during high school (grade 12 English) on the Shawshank redemption, I believe the context was debating on whether or not prisoners could be rehabilitated.

In college there was a debate on abortion and a debate on religion that were both cancelled in the middle of it because the same student on both occasions complained because of his religion.

All of these instances really irritated me because I personally was enjoying the debates and felt that a student shouldn’t be able to affect a learning opportunity for the entire class because of their feelings. I felt that especially at the college level people should be able to handle discussing controversial topics without it becoming an issue. I think making these students participate in these discussions could have actually helped them to grow as people. I’ll add too that no one was being rude or disrespectful during the debate and there was a teacher/instructor present the entire time. At the least I feel the debates should have went on and the student(s) causing issues should have just been excused.

Now I’m not wanting to discuss the actual topics I mentioned were being debated, it was for context so that people had an idea of the types of discussions people were upset about. I’m wondering if people think if a student is offended or uncomfortable during a debate what should happen? Should they be made to sit through it and participate as it’s part of their schooling and a learning opportunity? Should they be made to leave and sit out, but the debate continues or should the teacher/instructor cancel the entire thing?