A Real-World Introduction to Journalism

The student newspaper at Kennedy High School did not go to press Thursday night as expected. The usual run of 2,400 copies did not get distributed to classrooms Friday at the La Palma campus.

And the students did not get to read the lead story about a drive to recall school board members over their controversial actions regarding undocumented immigrants enrolled in the Anaheim Union High School District.

The Shamrock will most likely get printed early next week--unless I make matters worse with this column. But publication was delayed because Principal Norie Atherton has decided to enforce a rule--inconsistently observed in the past--requiring that a teacher be with students at all times while they’re on campus.

The students, who used to stay late to meet deadlines, call it a crackdown, an expression of official displeasure with their coverage of the news.

I had a taste of that same displeasure. On Friday, a day after I interviewed students on campus, Atherton decided to enforce a district policy that she said prevents reporters from meeting students on school grounds. The principal, who herself had graciously granted me an interview without an appointment, banned us from returning to photograph the students in their newsroom.

Intentional efforts to obstruct and harass the press? Feels like it, though it’s hard to prove. In any case, the school’s treatment of The Times and The Shamrock is providing student editors with a real-world education they could never have gotten in the classroom.

When I returned to my office late Thursday, I got this distressing e-mail from editor Mike Richter, a senior at Kennedy:

“I am sorry to inform you that the Kennedy Shamrock will not be coming out tomorrow. We were kicked out of our room by the administration and could not stay to finish it for the printers. I am deeply sorry, Mr. Gurza.”

Well, Mike, welcome to journalism.

Before all this fuss, I intended to tell the story of the student reporters who struggled with their own fears and doubts to tackle a sensitive issue that’s made headlines in Orange County for months. As you’ll recall, the Anaheim high school trustees voted to ask immigration authorities to identify undocumented students so the district could bill foreign countries for the cost of educating them. The move sparked angry meetings and charges of racism against Mexicans.

Two student reporters, Tina Kwak and Ravipal Singh, called me to request an interview since I had taken a strong stand against the board action and Trustee Harald Martin, an Anaheim police officer who spearheaded the issue. The Shamrock story contains quotes from both me and Martin.

I was impressed by these kids practicing an adult craft with confidence and commitment. But I also saw a sweet side to their story.

I saw their teenage insecurities. Their pure idealism. Their fears of getting in trouble for their efforts and perhaps ruining their college careers. And, in Ravi’s case, the complicating factor of a love relationship that made his reporting duty difficult.

The debate over the undocumented first caught the attention of Tina and Ravi when they read stories about it earlier this year in The Times. They were both struck by a statement from district Superintendent Janice Billings who declared herself “very passionate” about not allowing the controversy to enter classrooms.

Teachers say Billings instructed them not to discuss the issue in public. “It hasn’t affected school and it won’t,” the superintendent said. “This is a political issue; this is the board’s thing.”

First rule of journalism: Reporters love to go where they’re not invited. Billings’ baffling position spurred the student journalists to take on the story.

Recalls Ravi: “That’s when I said, ‘OK, that’s wrong. That’s not right for them to suppress something.’ ”

Ravi also thought he might have access to an inside source. His girlfriend, who attends a different school, is a student ambassador, one of four who represent the district at events and meetings.

But instead of helping, he found the relationship was a journalistic hindrance, and soon he found himself backing away from his mission.

Ravi worried that his byline on a controversial story might put his girlfriend on the spot. She’s a student leader and a high achiever, a girl with a lot to lose.

“I didn’t want to mess up anything for her,” Ravi says.

Or for himself. By this time, word had gotten back to the reporters that they should expect a call from the school board. They didn’t know who or what to expect. The call never came--not to them, anyway--but the idea put a chill on the kids.

Ravi says he was also concerned about risking his relationship with Principal Atherton. He had planned to ask her for a recommendation to USC’s premed program. How could he do that if his story might upset her? Ravi feared losing Atherton’s approval.

“Yeah, that’s why I chickened out,” he admitted.

Tina forged ahead with the story and faced obstacles of her own. She said her parents didn’t want her to write it because it might make her clash with school and district authorities.

“You know how Korean parents are,” said the U.S.-born Tina. They don’t want their children to stir up trouble, she said. Korean girls are expected to be good, obedient, quiet, gentle and demure.

Not the best traits for journalism.

About a month ago, Tina says she was called in by the principal. She said Atherton asked her what she planned to write and what questions she intended to ask the board members. The principal warned her to stick to the facts and avoid emotion.

I wondered if Tina might have felt intimidated by that questioning.

“I felt she really belittled me,” Tina said. “She told me how to write the story. Like I don’t know I’m supposed to get pro and con.”

Atherton told me that she was only concerned about getting quality journalism in the paper. She had received a complaint from the district, she says, but won’t identify from whom. She heard the students planned to make unfounded allegations of racism, which they deny.

“Skills are what I want,” said Atherton. “I have only praise for a story well done.”

Recently, the principal read Tina’s lead story and approved it. Still, Tina was angry about Atherton’s editorial intervention. She saw it as the administration’s inappropriate attempt to control content.

Thursday, Tina gave me a copy of her story, a competent and balanced summary of the issue. It’ll run along with an unsigned editorial by Evelyn Wang, the U.S.-born daughter of Taiwanese immigrants and also a senior at Kennedy. Wang’s well-reasoned piece calls for “more realistic alternatives” to billing foreign governments as a way of raising school funds. She argues that the country benefits from educating its youth, even those here illegally.

“These children, illegal or not, will become educated and will be able to obtain decent jobs when they mature. They will eventually pay the system back through their own taxes. . . .”

Before leaving campus, I asked these students what they learned from their experience.

Evelyn: “I learned how much heat real journalists take.”

Tina: “It’s a lot tougher than I expected it to be. I thought a career in journalism would be super fun, but I think I would die 20 years early from all the stress.”

And Ravi said he learned not to back away from controversy.

“As long as you’re writing both sides and you’re telling the truth, what is there to be afraid of?”

Agustin Gurza’s column appears Tuesday and Saturday. Readers can reach Gurza at (714) 966-7712 or agustin.gurza@latimes.com