Law Ethics and News Literacy
I am here to prove that age doesn't hinder my ability to produce quality journalism. That's why I have done detailed coverage of local, state and national issues, because I have just as much right to the name journalist as people working at my local newspaper
Additionally, understanding my rights is a key part of being a student journalist, even if I have to fight for rights guaranteed to every other journalist in the country.
Joining the fight for student rights
This program monitors district accounts. Students can trigger Gaggle with the words they type or images and videos they store or access through Google programs, including Gmail, Google Drive and even Google Calendar. That can result in administration intervention.
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Gaggle directly violates student journalists’ First Amendment right to protection from government monitoring, including its potential to expose confidential sources. A group of my fellow editors fought for the exemption of students in the journalism program. The longer I watched, the more inspired I was to join. Their work has drawn national attention and recognition.​​​
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Tying a black armband, junior Arabella Gipp helps build support for journalism staff concerns on March 29. At least 320 armbands were worn by students and staff at Lawrence High and Free State.
Photo by Bryndal Hoover
Listening, seniors Jack Tell, Natasha Torkzaban, Maya Smith and Morgan Salisbury look at board member Kelly Jones as she discusses Gaggle policy changes.​​
Photo by Arabella Gipp
My first story detailed the policy changes sought by our journalism staff.
It outlines the specific policy change requests, how these changes would impact students and the districts’ response to those requests.​
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My Gaggle Coverage
I started covering news about Gaggle after the district had agreed to discuss policy revisions with our journalism staff. However, the process was far from over. My coverage serves the purpose of educating the public on the current status of Gaggle, as well as the other issues caused by the AI.
Addressing concerns, USD497 board member Shannon Kimball speaks about Gaggle.
Photo by Arabella Gipp
My second Gaggle coverage piece was a breaking news story about the school board’s choice to renew the program for $53,000, despite concerns​.
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This story covers the school board's comments on the reinstating of Gaggle both defending the program and calling it into question.
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Adjusting their armbands, seniors Adelaide Sivits and Rose Allgeier wear armbands in support of student journalists protesting the use of Gaggle.​
Photo by Bryndal Hoover
My most recent story about Gaggle is an opinion piece about whether the invasive role of Gaggle outweighs the benefits.
It gives a detailed description of data about how the system works, and the several inconsistencies in the documentation of its first year.
To get this data, I went through an open records request detailing the exact information I needed, including the involvement of law enforcement, the trigger words and comments from administrators. This process resulted in an invasive experience with Gaggle of my own as it initially blocked me from receiving the documents that I requested.
2024 Election coverage
This year I took initiative to create detailed coverage of the 2024 election for both online and print publications.
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I worked with my staff to plan a newspaper issue, cover breaking news and gather data about the election.
The Election Package
For our third issue of the newspaper, I wanted to do a deep dive on the election and its impact on our local community, especially from a high school students’ perspective.
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The cover was detailed to be politically neutral, with lots of yellow tones and patriotic imagery instead of featuring specific political candidates.
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We had stories featuring our Young Demarcates Club canvassing event as well an infographic about young people's social media engagement with politics during this election season.
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Online Election Coverage
The day of the election, I worked tirelessly with my staff to produce quality coverage as it unfolded in front of us.
​​I encouraged my staff to get interviews with seniors voting for the first time and assigned a piece covering my district's local candidates. Both pieces were published the day of the election to encourage engagement in our democracy.
Election Watch Party
With my editors, I organized an election watch party to collect data for us to use when writing.​
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We watched the biggest live news coverage of the year while participating in it ourselves and bonding in the process.
Election Data
Most people in the country watched the polls at the bottom of the screens of their favorite news outlet. As editors, on the other hand, we refreshed The New York Times, CNN and AP News to mark updates of the status of Congress, and electoral college votes for the swing states as well as Kansas vote totals.
Teaching my staff about their rights
Every staffer must sign this form upon entry to the journalism staff.
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This is a copyright agreement, detailing that all content made by students in this classroom is the property of the creator. By signing this agreement, staffers acknowledge that their content will be used by the publications while explicitly outlining that this content is still the intellectual property of staff members.
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By signing this form, staffers also agree to not abuse their access to other people's work. For example, staffers cannot share a photo of their friends without the express permission of the photographer.
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This agreement applies to school administrators as well. They cannot see photos without permission from their creator or view content before its publication. That was one issue we battled with the AI monitoring program, Gaggle.
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It is important for staffers to understand that their rights and property are protected, especially as student journalists.
Covering National news
Although it is my job as a student journalist to cover local news at my high school, I have also stepped up to contextualize national political issues for my peers.
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Sometimes all it takes is to read an article and see that it was written by one of your peers. One click can mean the difference between ignorance and awareness of the nations’ news.
Overturning of Affirmative Action
Affirmative action was an important national issue for all students as college is often the next step taken by high schoolers after graduation.
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This was a controversial issue, with some students disagreeing with the court's ruling, and others in full support of it.
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After this story was published I even had students reach out to me over Instagram questioning my personal beliefs and asking for more information.
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It is important to have conversations about the policy that applies to education at a national level, because this national decision trickles down to affect high schoolers like us.
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Graphic by Lily Norton
Donald Trump's Indictment
This story was difficult to write as it discussed a highly controversial political figure.
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Because Trump was the first president in history to be indicted, I wanted to contextualize this issue with the opinions of Lawrence High students.
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However, as a left leaning school, it was difficult to get an interview from the perspective of a conservative student.
​I still managed to make sure the piece still highlights all of the important facts of the case and a general overview of Lawrence High's general opinion.
Graphic by Luke Havener