Our big project

Our last issue has come out with little fanfare. We covered the issue of diversity at our school, and we have heard some rumblings that we got some information wrong, but no one has approached us yet, and I don't know what it is. Ultimately, we covered an issue that is important to our school because we have a changing demographic that has created some tensions.

Our big issue is coming up. We have seen many more fights this year at our school, and it is something my kids have been talking about, but it is now something we must cover. We can't avoid it anymore, especially after one of our hallway monitors resigned (supposedly) after the last fight. This is not going to be easy. Our school will not want to talk about it and call attention to the fights that happen in our school. We must make sure we talk to the right people and get the right information. Any errors will make us a target, and I know people will look for what we do wrong. We have to be on our game with this one, and it will be the most socially responsible story we tackle this year.

Our editorial board decided this would be our c-spread, so our cover and c-spread will need good art that does not sensationalize the issue, but rather adds context and depth to the discussion. We also spent the first thirty minutes of class on Wednesday casting a wide net as far as who we will need to talk to? The students were impressive. I asked them to write down what we needed to know to cover this story well. Who we needed to talk to. What the consequences were for doing it well, and what they were for doing it poorly, and most importantly, who we needed to talk to. Students that have been in the class for many years and students who had only been in the class for a few weeks were asking good questions that we needed to answer in the article and they created an impressive list of people to talk to. If they contact half of them, I'll be ecstatic.

I think several students were excited about writing this story, and we have several different angles we are pursuing. Our students want to know the story behind one of our hall monitors suddenly resigning, and they are contacting him and the principal to get a straight story. It may not come, but we are trying.

We will have about two weeks to work on this story, and we have already contacted the principal. I sat down with him briefly and laid out what the kids were doing, how we would do it, and why were doing it, and he said he would talk to my students and help them get the info they need. My students are scheduling an appointment with the principal. I hope to report that my kids have made contacts, gathered good info and are moving on the story next week.