Student journalists report on Genius Girl story that goes viral
The student journalists at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology knew the story that was going viral in the public media about a student from their school needed to be told from the inside by the people who knew the real story.
The story of the ‘Genius Girl’ from TJHSST moved through public media including the Washington Post, not far from their school. According to the Washington Post, the story was actually a hoax, perpetrated by the student. The student promoted that she had been accepted into all eight Ivy League schools, but in the end, the real story showed that the student had fabricated much of the hype herself. Her peers took on the challenge and reported the story. They interviewed the principal and also others about societal pressure to make the grade.
According to their adviser, Erinn Harris, ” My students didn’t even know where to start in telling this story. A senior forged college acceptances, creating an uproar that was covered in the local, national and international press; we didn’t know what to do, but we knew we needed to do something. In their continuing coverage that began in June, students don’t plan to focus on the “Genius Girl,” but rather the social, cultural and academic stress that drove her to deceive her entire community. The goal is to keep students from feeling the kind of pressure that would lead them to making such drastic and life-altering decisions.”
Their initial story appears here: “Genius Girl” should spark conversation about academic pressure
Check out their website for more coverage in the coming year.
Read MoreStudents making content decisions – 1 Administrative review – 0
by Candace Perkins Bowen
Even media staffs that have been the well-respected voice of a large, diverse student body sometimes run into problems with administrators. And sometimes a few tweaks of the editorial policy or staff manual could get them through the rough spots and apparently back on track to publish what they know their readers need and want to know.
McKinney journalists get the story right
When students take to the streets to tell the real stories that professional media get wrong, the power of student journalism does make a difference in a school, a community and the nation.
In this first story of the year for the JEA SPRC Making A Difference Project, the students at McKinney High School in Texas reported on the in famous ‘Pool Party’ video that went viral during the summer. This difficult story about the clash between police officers and African American teens in this small town in Texas created much national rumor and inaccurate reporting in the public media. Student journalists at McKinney High School would have none of this shoddy reporting so they reported it themselves.
According to Alyssa Boehringer, the Manestreamnews.com adviser, “It wasn’t until the infamous McKinney “pool party video” went viral that students realized the topic of police brutality against African Americans could come to our small Texas town. But it did. And with all the hateful comments on conservative blogs, inaccurate details in the New York Times and sharp vitriol in almost every Facebook comment, student journalists chose to ignore the rhetoric and tell a firsthand account of what happened when a local cop manhandled a 14-year-old black girl and pulled a gun on two boys who came to her aid.”
Student journalists were there, and the story they tell can be found at this link on their school news media site.
http://manestreamnews.com/8414/home/mckinney-pool-party-makes-splash-across-nation/
This student run media website is advised by Alyssa Boehringer and Lori Oglesbee-Petter as an after school activity.
Read MoreEditors tell their stories; change minds
Telling an unfiltered story to peers is sometimes difficult. Telling your own story about your sexuality can be even more difficult. Three editors of The Howler at Monarch High School In Louisville, Colorado, found a way to tell the stories they knew needed to be published. The end result created a place where all kids in the LGBT community could feel safe and appreciated at school.
According the their adviser, Bonnie Katzive, the “editors deliberately presented the interview subjects telling their own stories, as opposed to letting them be filtered by a writer. Editors initiated a conversation with administrators to establish whether or not the profanity would be seen as problematic. Our principal merely said she would forward complaints about content or language to our Editors in Chief. (No one complained.) The adviser for the school Gay Straight Association believes the openness of these three seniors allowed younger students to feel safer being out at school, observed a noticeable increase in same-sex couples attending Prom this year, and attributed increasing openness in part to the article.”
The double page spread can be accessed here. Monarch HS – Issue 3 Page 8&9 (1).
Read MoreCJE test-takers need not fear law & ethics questions
“But the law and ethics questions worry me,” said a slightly frazzled journalism teacher as she slid into the last row of seats for one of the Denver convention’s Getting Certified sessions. She was going to take the test later that day in hopes of becoming a Certified Journalism Educator, and she knew she HAD to pass that part of the test.
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