14A
FALL 2014
ADVISER UPDATE
ADVISER UPDATE
Recapping the ‘basics’
O
Kathy
Craghead
Update photo by Jelissa Puckett
CONGRATULATIONS
to our fall 2014 award winners
Don Goble
Carl Towley Award
Mark Murray, Arlington
(Texas) I.S.D.
Administrator of the Year
Teresa L. Johnson, principal, Chantilly (Va.) High School
Friend of Scholastic Journalism
Tom Campbell, The Argus-Press, Owosso, Mich.
Gary Hairlson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Margaret Kaplow, The Washington Post
Barbara McCormack, Newseum, Washington, D.C.
Lifetime Achievement Award
Bob Bair, MJE, Blair, Neb.
Linda Ballew, MJE, Great Falls, Mont.
Michael Doyle, CJE, Belvidere, Ill.
Carol R. Eanes, Morganton, N.C.
Jack Kennedy, MJE, Highlands Ranch, Colo.
Kay Locey, CJE, Puyallup, Wash.
David Massy, CJE, Lenexa, Kan.
Jim McGonnell, New Smyrna Beach, Fla.
Barbara McLachlan, CJE, Durango, Colo.
Carol S. Neal, Pompano Beach, Fla.
Diane E. Schutt, Fairbury, Neb.
Ann Visser, MJE, Pella, Iowa
These individuals will be honored at the adviser recognition luncheon
noon, Saturday, Nov. 8, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel
during the 2014 JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention.
“As an
adviser, I feel
obligated and
committed
to support
any student
who wishes
to cover
this story
unfolding in
Ferguson.
I will direct
them to
follow the
guidelines
we have
arranged,
and support
their learning
along the
way.”
T
he events that have unfolded, and will
continue to unfold in Ferguson, Mo.,
impact us all. And with the sensationalism
exhibited by the mainstream media, there is
a real opportunity for our student journalists’
voice to be heard.
Many of my students expressed an interest in covering the events surrounding the
death of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson. I
had in-depth conversations with my school’s
administration, school counselors, trusted
JEA colleagues and the SPLC. After much
deliberation, I came to the conclusion that if
my students decided on their own to cover
the story, I would support them.
Safety is our number one concern, and
as a class, we discussed that if professional
journalists can be arrested and grouped
in the violence, of course we would be
concerned about our students. We did not,
and do not, advocate our students attending
the heavy areas of protest, however, we felt
there was an immense journalistic opportunity for them, and they could capture
these stories without being in the midst of a
protest.
I decided to create some guidelines to
which my students must adhere. I asked
Guidelines:
• You will need parent/guardian permission in written form
my teaching partner, Marteana Davidson,
to take part in covering this story. All permissions should
to review the document, and then sent the
be sent electronically to myself, Principal Brad Griffith and
guidelines to SPLC’s Frank LoMonte for
Superintendent Dr. Donna Jahnke.
legal advice. I did a note to the student staff • Avoid all Ferguson protest areas and find alternate sites
and locations to interview and shoot BRoll. Filming should
and told them anyone wishing to pursue tell- take place during the day.
ing untold stories of Ferguson MUST follow • Should you personally choose to cover this story, find
angles of the story that have not been told, rather than
the guidelines.
rehashing what the mainstream media is doing.
The morning of the funeral, I had two of
• Make sure your sound bites and BRoll are objective and
my students, Jelissa Puckett and Phillip
tell BOTH sides of the story. This is your opportunity to be
a fair and balanced reporter, something we haven’t seen in
Robinson-Morgan, tell me their parents
the mainstream media recently.
excused them from school so they could
• Leave all personal opinion out of your stories. By no
attend the funeral. They asked me if they
means should you offer commentary. Simply state facts,
and allo