Youth / OPINION : Papers Prevent ‘A Weakness in Student Voice’

For 20 years Aaron H. Rotman was adviser of The Oarsman, Venice High School’s weekly student newspaper. He says the trend to eliminate student papers because of budget problems is wrong. “Journalism gives kids a sense of a job. You have deadlines to meet, you have responsibilities, and you get a chance to produce something worthwhile. It teaches a skill, an art.” Following are comments from student editors about what the papers mean to them.

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JAMIE LOWE

Senior, 17, managing editor and opinion editor of The Warrior, the weekly student newspaper of University High School,

West Los Angeles

The idea of not funding school newspapers is preposterous. At our school there is no danger of the demise of the newspaper. We come out with 30 issues a year. Journalism used to get a lot more funding in its heyday in the late ‘70s when it was really thriving.

If papers were discontinued, there would be a definite weakness in the student voice. The paper provides a forum for students to speak out, and also to show how students are achieving. It unites the school.

SABRINA TOM

Junior, 17, opinion page editor of The Samohi, the biweekly student newspaper at Santa Monica High School

The newspaper is the perfect forum for students to voice their opinions and to make a significant difference. I know that our newspaper tries to make it as realistic a journalism experience as possible. I absolutely think that without the school newspaper, the school and students would have less of an identity. There are so many things going on stripping away students’ power. The newspaper is a perfect forum to empower students.

LISA MORRIS

Senior, 17, copy editor of Le Sabre, a monthly, Cleveland High School, Reseda

I think eliminating student newspapers is such narrow thinking. If you don’t teach kids how to think and how to report a story and how to find out things for themselves, you’re not really educating them. We’re learning to look for both sides of the story and to check our sources. I think I carry that kind of guarded skepticism into the rest of my life--the tendency not to believe everything I hear on the news. You can learn writing in other ways, like from your English class, but what you’re missing there is that responsibility, and I think that’s an important lesson that you can’t teach any other way.

KEN LUONG

Senior, 17, editor-in-chief of The Moor, a weekly student newspaper, Alhambra High School

I don’t think it’s possible to know everything about your school without a newspaper. To have a fulfilling school life, you should know what’s going on. I had to teach staff writers how to interview people, how to research facts, how to present their stories. It’s a good way for people to put their efforts into something rewarding. I learned that whatever the newspaper says, the whole staff has to stand by it.