THIS WEEK’S A PLUS GOES TO ANOTHER GROUP OF STUDENT JOURNALISTS WHO WROTE THEIR WAY INTO ACTION.
AUSTIN HYSLIP HAS THEIR STORY.
WHAT STARTED AS A PROFILE ABOUT THEIR NEW HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL ENDED IN NATIONAL ATTENTION. JOURNALISM STUDENTS AT PHS WERE WRITING AN ARTICLE ABOUT THEIR NEW PRINCIPAL, DR. AMY ROBERTSON. THAT'S WHEN THEY FOUND SOME THINGS THAT DIDN'T QUITE ADD UP.
Patrick Sullivan / Student: "Everyone was really shocked. The most common question is how did the school board not catch this earlier and not follow up on it and how did we catch it before everyone else? And my response is, I think we just did our job as journalists."
WHILE ROBERTSON DOES HAVE A BACHELOR'S DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF TULSA... THE SCHOOL WHERE SHE RECEIVED HER DOCTORATE, CORLLINS UNIVERSITY, DOESN'T SEEM TO EXIST.
Pittsburg Superintendent Destry Brown: "She had a lot of documents that she was using to back up the claim that they were valid degrees."
SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS SAY THEY HAVE A VETTING PROCESS THAT WOULD HAVE CAUGHT THE SAME THINGS, BUT THE STUDENTS WERE ABLE TO RELEASE THE INFORMATION SOONER.
Pittsburg Superintendent Destry Brown: "We can't go out and tell everybody what we've been doing and that sort of thing-- we were asking the same questions."
Kalli Ponitske / Student: "What we were just writing to give our community some information has turned into this big ordeal."
FOR THEIR EXPERT RESEARCH SKILLS, THESE SLEUTHING STUDENTS GET OUR NEWSDEPTH A PLUS.
NOW THAT’S WRITING THAT HAS AN IMPACT!
Instructional Links
Website Article: Ohio Means Jobs, Occupation Search, Reporters and Correspondents
Website: School Journalism.org | Resources & online learning modules & videos for students & teachers