Rebecca Griesbach 2016 Journalist of the Year

raising the

volume

REBECCA GRIESBACH

JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

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ubby fingers firmly gripping an archaic Ticonderoga pencil, I intently scrawled onto a page of my kindergarten journal, making sure to stay in between the dotted lines. I was writing about Jack in the sun again.

Framed by unruly dark hair pulled back into a predictable pairing of a low ponytail and glitter barrette, my chubby cherub cheeks beamed as I proclaimed Jack’s latest adventure to the class.

“This IS Jack. And He IS baby Jessus. FoR The biG Play. In DoG School. in the sun,” I read. I pointed to the crudely drawn portrait of my family’s one year old Jack Russell terrier swaddled in a gray blanketlike scribble, my trademark Crayola yellow sun fitted into the corner of the page.

After a quiet, almost forced applause, my teacher pulled me aside and said as delicately as she could, “Rebecca, I think you should start writing about something else.”

“What was wrong with Jack?”

I thought. I was simply providing consistent, thorough beat coverage on a topic I was following throughout the school year. What more did she want from me?

From then on out, I made it my mission to compose a thought provoking literary work of art.

Millions – no, bajillions - would marvel over it, using it to critically analyze the human condition.

And so I tried to think more abstractly.

“This IS Ruth. And She IS Pretending to be A Princess. In the sun,” I wrote.

Our old Australian shepherd stood tall above some lime green grass, flaunting a scandalous purple dress and a yellow blob above her head – presumably a crown.

The trademark sun still stood in the corner, but my multimedia masterpiece was simply too cliché for a Pulitzer.

I tried again, “This is Samme.

And He is rideing A elephant. In the sun.”

This time, I switched mediums to Magic Marker, pairing the story with a drawing of an orange striped cat precariously perched atop a rather impressive looking elephant, their backs turned to the yellow sun still presiding in its top right corner.

Now I was getting somewhere.

It was still missing something, though.

“Maybe I should add some romance,” I thought.

The next entry read, “This IS Samme And Ruth. And Thay are Falling in Love. In the Sun.” That wasn’t exactly true, though.

Sammy probably had tons of felines clawing after him as he took his suspiciously long walks around the neighborhood. I quickly realized a story like that would be inauthentic, and frankly – sensationalist.

“Maybe I should just stick to the facts,” I thought.

I leaned back into the snot

stained plastic chair, gazing in awe at my latest work, “This IS Ruth And Samme. And Thay are GoinG to The-Chinese-restaurant. In The Sun.” I had done it. It was pure journalistic gold. The who, the what, the why, the how, the where – they had all been answered. It was specific, it was detailed, and it practically screamed diversity.

But my masterpiece didn’t seem to go over as well with the class as I thought it would - and if you aren’t writing for your readers, who are you really writing for?­­ Maybe they wanted something more real, more raw, more… controversial.

And so I began to investigate.

What was Sammy doing with all his time, sneakily slinking through the yard and over the fence? He had to be up to more than just an afternoon stroll.

After a careful and completely ethical gathering of evidence, the cat was out of the bag.

“This IS Samme. And He IS Smoking A PiyP. In The Sun,” I wrote. Sammy was standing on two legs smoking a jet black pipe, his face wearing a pleased expression.

Aside from the sun beating down from its usual spot, his location was ambiguous.

That was it. The biggest story of the year had just been broken, and I was to become the next Bob Woodward, plain and simple.

The Storytime Chair me, circa 2003

...

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

the

ESSAY

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The Tuscaloosa News Jack and me, circa 2016

AN AWAKENING PLOT TWIST

But that’s not exactly how my career in journalism panned out.

Ten years later, at the start of my sophomore year of high school, a friend and I stumbled into Room 109, the school’s journalism classroom, seeking a place to showcase our artwork.

We shared this oddly specific, unattainable dream to become professional artists/cupcake shop owners/interior designers, and we saw the award-winning Northridge Reporter as a stepping stone for our future endeavors.

But here I was, stuck in this room where I was required to write four stories per grading period. Albeit I was a decent writer - my previous work had gotten a chuckle out of my former teachers – I just didn’t see it as a future career.

My only idea of a high school journalist, I recalled, was from watching “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” every morning before school when I was younger. Sabrina wrote for her school newspaper, which looked like a measly newsletter with few graphics and an eyesore of a layout. “Bor-ing,” I thought. “She should just stick to her witch stuff.”

Little did I know, however, that my staff would soon refer to me as having superpowers of my own.

As I climbed the ranks from Staff Writer, to News Editor, to a combination of Feature/Managing/Social Media Editors in just two years, it was clear that Room 109 had cast some sort of spell on me.

I had transformed into this night crawling creature that would stay up into the wee hours of the morning, watching the sun rise out of my peripherals as my eyes stayed fixated on the computer screen. My fingers grazed the trackpad as I tried to salvage another page editor’s failed attempt at a cutout.

I’d show up the next day, unruly dark hair put up into a less stylish ‘do than the one from my glitter barrette glory days, and trudge into Room 109 wearing “the sweatpants” - baggy, stained, and nowhere close to the professional attire I had dreamed of wearing one day.

This get-up quickly became a tell-tale symbol of a girl who was devoted to the paper - a girl who had grown accustomed to a job far less glamorous than she thought it would be.

But by the grace of some unseen force, I didn’t burn out. I knew, clear as day, that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

It’s the summer before my senior year of high school. An editor from The Tuscaloosa News is thumbing through our staff’s prized possession It’s Not So Black and White, a compilation of articles analyzing racial relations between students in the Tuscaloosa City Schools.

He asks me about my career path, to which I respond, “I want to become a journalist.”

He turns to me with a sincere expression, “Now Rebecca, are you good at math?”

I respond with a bewildered, “... yes.”

“Be an engineer,” he said. “People as talented as you... they tend to waste it on jobs like journalism. Writers just don’t get by anymore.”

He pointed to the cubicles outside of his office, noting the piles of student debt his interns have accumulated and would “never” be able to repay on a journalist’s salary.

My face got a little redder and my heart beat a little faster.

“Was it worth it?” I thought to myself.

As soon as I asked myself that question, though, I knew the answer.

Money can’t make a school board

member kiss me on the cheek, smile and say “God bless you,” nor can it make a janitor frame my work and hang it proudly in his home. Money just can’t make people’s day the way giving them a voice can.

Journalism is a craft, fluid and versatile, that allows me to dabble in a variety of pursuits, immerse myself completely in a story and do it all over again.

In no other career would I sit back, nod my head and listen to a student describe rolling his first joint at the age of eleven, snorting cocaine at fourteen and watching his life fall apart at seventeen. In no other career would I climb onto a catwalk and help adjust 500 degree lights before a play. In no other career would I get to physically integrate a school and see for myself what its like to be a kid from the “other side of town.”

I wouldn’t want to be anyone other than the listener, the speaker and the doer that journalism has enabled me to be.

My career isn’t waiting for me; it has already started. And it didn’t start with a professional byline or a staff promotion. It started with Jack in the sun.

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RR OL L NO HO LIS M RN A PA JO U

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THIS IS MY

NS

OVERVIEW OF JOURNALISTIC EXPERIENCE AWARD WINNING

NEWSPAPER

YEAR WORKING ON AN

NEWS EDIT OR 2013-2014

ALL ALABAMA SIPA SUPERIOR CSPA GOLD MEDALIST NSPA PACEMAKER FINALIST nt

2014-prese R O T I D E FEATURE

FROM THIS

FROM THIS

TO THIS

TO THIS

WINNER OF

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ASPA STATE AWARDS &

PRESIDENT

NATIONAL AWARDS

of school’s chapter

QUILL & SCROLL CONTRIBUTED TO/WORK PUBLISHED IN_

SOCIAL MEDIA EDITOR 2014-present MANAGING EDITOR 2014-present FACEBOOK INSTAGRAM ISSUU ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE

A GOOD JOURNALIST IS ONE THAT IS MULTIFACETED, PACKAGING SEVERAL MEDIUMS TOGETHER TO TELL A STORY. A GOOD JOURNALIST KNOWS THAT PICTURES SPEAK A THOUSAND WORDS AND THAT A WELL DESIGNED PAGE LEADS THE READERS’ EYE TO WHAT IS IMPORTANT. A GOOD JOURNALIST KNOWS THAT JOURNALISM IS FLUID, NOT FRAGMENTED. IN THE NEXT FEW PAGES, I WILL SHOW FIVE DIFFERENT WAYS I’VE USED ALL JOURNALISTIC FORMS TO DEVELOP AS A JOURNALIST AND RAISE THE VOLUME IN MY COMMUNITY.

SEC. 1

One of the most important lessons I’ve learned as a journalist is that everybody has a story. You don’t have to live in a bustling city or a town rich with history to find an interesting character; all you have to do is listen. In this section, I use all forms of journalism to humanize the world around us, PASSING THE MIC to those who fade into the background.

SEC. 2

Journalism, like a quality and well-funded school, has allowed me to dabble in a variety of pursuits.

Through reporting on the arts, athletics, and everything in between, I have not only been able to develop my craft, but to shine a light on everything my school has to offer. In the end, I FIND A STYLE of my own.

SEC. 3

By my junior year, I had sharpened my skills to tackle larger issues, building upon the foundation I had laid the previous year.

In this section, I expose the darker side of life - for students and faculty alike. I highlight sensitive issues, build trust with the administration, and ultimately HANDLE them WITH the utmost of CARE.

SEC. 4 At the end of my journalism career, I’ve learned all too well that red tape, injustice and a world stuck in their ways often prevent true progress. In this section, I help others overcome these obstacles and give them an opportunity to make the world a better place.

All the while, I BREAK DOWN BARRIERS of my ownbarriers that often bar the youth from speaking out.

SEC. 5

I often shied away from opinion pieces my first years on the staff because I felt I had little insight or experience. However, after three years of covering real issues in my community, I learned all too quickly that my voice matters. In this section, I advocate for justice, open minds and authentic journalism, PUSHING FOR CHANGE inside the classroom and out.

I DESIGNED THIS

I proposed my plan to the staff and my advisor, and she agreed to make the project a grade for the other class. A couple weeks later, a folder was shared with me to include a screen full of entries - a diverse group of students and faculty with quotes ranging from quirky jokes to more revealing stories. The class produced more than enough to last a whole school year, and they learned a few things along the way. My plan had succeeded.

WEB/SOCIAL MEDIA/EDITING/ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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passing the mic

During my senior year, we were under the supervision of a new advisor. Classes were split into Journalism 1 and Journalism 2. The Journalism 1 class housed about 20 new members who were just learning the basics. As our Instagram account was lacking, I took the initiative to introduce “Humans of Northridge,� a project based off of Humans of New York, in which the newcomers could learn quote gathering and photography, all while integrating it into social media.

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Giving a voice to...

Custodians ask students to treat bathrooms with respect

don’t flush the toilet and urine is always on the floor.

“Flush the toilet,” Williams said. “No one wants to go in a dirty bathroom.”

Karlar Hughes, custodian, said students need to remember that the bathrooms are provided for their use.

“It all comes down to respect,” Hughes said. “Respect and value what is provided for you. Keep it clean as if it was your own home. Put things where they are supposed to go: put paper towels in the garbage, and put toilet paper in the toilet.”

Wiggins said he wants students to feel comfortable enough to report things to him and other custodians.

“A lot of the times we don’t know [about a problem] until someone lets us know. We want students to be eyes for us,” Wiggins said. “We’re one big team. We should all work together to get things resolved.”

Due to a column a staff member wrote on the filthy conditions of our school bathrooms, it was difficult to regain the trust of custodians for interviews. I wanted to share their side of the story, so I stayed after school one day, searching the premises for the one custodian I knew would talk: Willy Crawford.

Though he was hard at work, his eyes lit up when he saw me, surprised to see a yellow pad and pencil at such a peculiar place and time. He walked with a slight limp as he showed me the ropes, the ins and outs of his daily routine. I knew then that this story would have to focus around him. Luckily, I was able to grab a few supporting quotes from the other janitors, who were now more trusting.

When the paper came out, I was informed that Crawford had asked for multiple copies, and he told my advisor that he hung one up at his home.

I WROTE THIS MY FIRST YEAR ON THE STAFF

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“I went in the boys bathroom, and they put toilet paper over a BM and clogged it. The same thing happened the next day in the same stall, so you know they were doing it on purpose,” Wiggins said. “I’ve seen a BM in the urinal. Sometimes they take whole rolls of paper towels a nd try to clog the toilets. It’s kind of cruel; it’s low-down.”

Why, though, would students take the time out of their day to vandalize the bathrooms? “’Cause they’re crazy,” Crawford said. “That’s it. They’re just plain crazy. As long as they know someone is cleaning up after them, they don’t care.

I think [the administration] should make the students clean up the bathrooms themselves, so they can see what it’s like.”

Wiggins said students need to take consideration of their classmates.

“When you waste the soap, and it runs out, other students don’t have the opportunity to wash their hands. When visitors come, [the bathroom] stinks because some students don’t flush the toilets,” Wiggins said.

Most students, like Wiggins said, fall victim to the actions of those who don’t clean up after themselves.

Jessica Outlaw, sophomore, said the worst thing she has encountered in the bathroom was “poop on the toilet seat.”

“Students need to be sanitary,” Outlaw said. “They think it’s funny to mistreat the restrooms, but it’s not.”

Bryant Williams, sophomore, said he doesn’t want to use the restrooms because students

People like Willy Crawford make writing worthwhile.

[

Clogged and overflowing toilets, paper towels on the ground and obscenities on the walls are things our custodians encounter daily as they clean the bathrooms.

Cleaning the bathrooms is custodian Willy Crawford’s sole responsibility. He arrives at 4:00 in the afternoon, spends about 25 minutes per bathroom, and does not finish until 8:00 at night.

Crawford said that although the conditions of the bathrooms have improved over the past year due to the school hiring more janitors, students should begin to “take responsibility” for their mess.

“The worst are [the bathrooms] near the cafeteria,” Crawford said. “I think it’s because [the students] get stopped up during lunch time.

The toilets overflow a lot, [students] don’t flush their stools, and they try to cover it up with brown paper. They slam down the seats, but they don’t know how fragile that fiberglass is, and they break the seats.”

Crawford said it’s not just carelessness of the students that leads to messy bathrooms.

Some students put forth effort to deliberately mistreat school property.

“There’s always writing on the walls. This right here, we had to paint over a couple days ago,” Crawford said, pointing to a patch on the wall of the bathroom outside Jennifer Box’s office.

Arthur Wiggins, custodian, has also had a fair share of experience with messy bathrooms.

THE CUSTODIANS WRITING-BEAT

THE QUIET KID

was reluctant to be photographed, but I helped him overcome his I TOOK THIS PHOTO Marcel camera-shyness and he was ultimately pleased with the outcome.

Marcel Mays was a quiet kid with a strong sense of style. I noticed him in my advisor’s bonus period class where I was working on page layout.

What resulted was one of the most memorable interviews I’ve had with a student. He told me about rapping with his father, who has been in and out of prison. He told me about having to move around as a kid, listing off his siblings and the relationships he had with them.

He told told me about his fashion sense and his music tastes, and eventually, I got him to tell me a little bit about the ladies.

We both laughed as he told me about his unfortunate experiences with “the females,” as he calls them, and I ended up getting a humorously vivid anecdote that I knew was worth printing. To make the reader feel like they were there with me in that moment, I transcribed the way he talked and his expressive facials through description and use of slang.

This is one of my trademarks as a journalist - I develop characters through my stories by paying attention to detail. This character, though, ended up becoming a friend that I’ll never forget.

Rapper begins rapping about ‘Spongebob’ at eight With gold-plated teeth spitting rhymes inspired by his idols Tupac, Jeezy, Boosie and Biggie, sophomore Marcel Mays is on his way to pursue a future in the entertainment industry.

“I can really do everything,” Mays said. “Rap, sing, act - I would want to make a career out of all of ‘em.”

Mays’ U.S. History teacher John Edwards said that while typically soft spoken, Mays makes conversation with him on a regular basis, discussing music and everything in between.

“He says he’s got some pretty good lines,” Edwards said. “[He’s a] funny guy, a funny guy...”

Marc Mays, Marcel’s dad, said his son “grew up around music his whole life.”

“He would always blast the radio and bob his head like he knew what he was listening to,” Marc said.

Mays said his musical path began “back in 1998,” when Marc got convicted for possession. “[Marc] started rapping in jail,” Mays said. “He started rapping about trying to become a better human being... about overcoming his problems.”

After a year and a half, Marc was released from prison. It was then that he started to share his newfound interest with his son.

“Every time I used to go up to his house, he used to just spit freestyle,” Mays said. “And I’d just be like, ‘Man, that was tight!’”

The two continued to spend their visits rapping together, and at eight, Mays started to write his own raps.

“Golly, I used to rap about crazy stuff, man,” Mays said.

“Like, I had a song called ‘SpongeBob.’ Really! I was just writing to it, like all of the different episodes, and I would just put stuff together.”

By the time he hit seventh grade, Mays said the focus of his raps changed from Rugrats to relationships.

“I started rapping about females, you know?” Mays said.

This shift wasn’t sparked by any one girl, Mays said with a laugh, his shiny set of grills catching the light.

“There was a lot of ‘em...” Mays said, still chuckling, reveling in the thoughts of his middle school

pursuits. “I don’t discriminate.”

One girl, though, stuck out to him, but not in a way Mays said he wants to remember. “… So I was chillin’ with my homies, and she came to my house! She came over there, and she was yappin’ off at the mouth.

I was like, ‘I don’t want you over here,’ so I just walked off.

But then she got in her car and zoomed onto the sidewalk, so I jumped in the yard. I nearly took off runnin’,” Mays said. “She like, ‘SCRRRRR!’ like, took off. She tried to run me over with her car!”

He hasn’t written a rap about her yet, but he will eventually, Mays said with a wink. As for now, Mays “doesn’t really worry about females.” Instead, he’s focused on “making it big.”

“I like rappin’ about comin’ up, possibly makin’ it rich,” Mays said. “I love money.”

Through his father’s eyes, Mays’ dream could indeed come true.

“I see him going far because I know that anything is possible with him if he puts his mind to it,” Marc said. “And of course, nothing is possible without having faith in God; that

PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITING-PROFILE

is something I truly

believe in.”

In October of last year, Mays said he met his producer Bama Flamez “through a homeboy.”

“We had talked and stuff and connected on so many levels,” Mays said.

While his son’s future in music seems promising, Marc said that he urges him to finish school and strive to “be independent.”

“I think he will make it into the industry simply because he’s very talented and, need I say, very lyrical,” Marc said. “Marcel is a good son with lots of ambition, and I love him along with the rest of his siblings with all of my heart.”

Although he said he’s closer to his mother and sister, whom he has lived with all of his life, Mays said he shares something special with his dad, as he is “the only [son] that does music.”

“Never forget where you come from. Always remember who did stuff for you and who didn’t,” Mays said. “That’s the kinda thing I like to rap about.”

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I TOOK THESE PHOTOS The photographer and I warily climbed this ladder onto the catwalk to fully immerse ourselves in the story.

THE TING

LIGH

4

GUY

The concept for the December 2015 feature spread was to reveal what’s “Behind the Scenes” at our school. The dominant module was dedicated to the theatre department, whose backstage workers are often overlooked, while the rest featured other, more familiar, “backstage workers.” Before a performance, my photographer and I did some investigative work, braving a fear of heights to capture a day in the life of a lighting technician. This spread was all about shining a light on those who go unnoticed, which also happens to be the driving motive behind my work as a journalist.

The catwalk was about 30 feet above the stage, with 500 degree lights (at an amperage totaling about 20 amps) just inches above my six-foot frame.

PHOTOGRAPHY/JOURNALISTIC COURAGE

MAINTAINING ETHICS

Since Lattner’s job is extremely dangerous, he was wary of the photographer and me revealing the catwalk’s location. The reader couldn’t know how to get up to the catwalk or where the ladder was located, in order to prevent potential injuries.

Because of this, Lattner asked me to see the story before it went to print. In order to preserve my journalistic integrity, however, I told him that that was unethical. I instead offered to share quotes with him and promised not to include any revealing details of the catwalk’s whereabouts.

Griesbach, Mason reflect on catwalk experience

As he thumbed through his “Lighting Bible,” chief lighting technician Ben Lattner gave us the inside scoop on everything from bars, to PARs, to scrims, to gels, to frames, to knobs, to gates, to lamps, to lenses.

“There’s Eddies, the ellipsoidal reflecting spotlights (ERS); Paulas, the PARnels; Christophers, the cycloramas...” he said. “...I don’t think you understand the special relationship I have with my lighting equipment.”

He walked over to his followspot, a spotlight adorned with some “excellent duct tape,” a sticker of Frozen’s Elsa and a piece of yellow electrical tape marked “Psychedelic Steve.”

Fitted with a couch and a convenient water heater for hot chocolate, the booth felt like a second home. But his real second home, we would come to find out, was the catwalk.

“My job is really dangerous, but I love what I do. So I keep on doing it,” Lattner said after we climbed up a thirty-foot ladder onto a steel grated platform concealed above the ceiling panels of the auditorium.

An easy task for him, whose agile body scurried up in record time, the climb was quite daunting for us, not daring to look down as we firmly gripped the bars, moving at a snail’s pace as we stared into a dark nothingness ahead.

When we finally hoisted ourselves up onto the catwalk, we had a bird’s

eye view of the stage set for Number the Stars. As we looked down upon the actors, echoes of their vocal warm up filled our ears.

Lattner cautioned us not to touch the 500 degree lights, which beamed just inches above our heads.

He fiddled with a fifteen pound ellipsoidal, perfectly aligning it for the show. Moving quietly as to avoid distracting the actors below, he slinked down the ladder as quickly as he came up.

“When you work a technical role in theater, your measure of success is how much your work doesn’t take away from the actors,” he said. “There’s a reason we wear black...You’re there to make the actors look and sound good.

You’re not there to outshine them.”

I DESIGNED THIS

Lattner suggested that a perspective photo of the catwalk would look striking on the front page, so I aided our photographer in shooting this. I added perspective and changed the opacity of the title to create a more cohesive design.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD Along with an exclusive lighting lesson, Lattner lended me his notebooks to pull information from. I ended up scanning photos of them and inverting the colors to fit with the background. I wanted to include, yet separate the other elements, so I used positive and negative space to create more dimension, breaking those boundaries at times with some graphics, boxes and shadows.

I MADE THESE I made the ladder using Photoshop and warped the silhouette to line his hands and feet with the rungs. I also made the bus in Photoshop, merging shapes to provide a background for the story (which I had to completely re-write).

DESIGN/LAW AND ETHICS/WRITING-FEATURE everything from bars, to PARs, to scrims, 5

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DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY/ILLUSTRATION/WRITING-FEATURE small, so I started by drawing half of a blazer. I then scanned I DREW THIS itfairly into Photoshop, where I filled it with red and decorated with dots.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD Upon returning from the 2014 NSPA Convention, the page editors spent their Veteran’s Day off in Room 109, our journalism classroom, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. completing pages. This spread placed at ASPA for spread design and won a Certificate of Merit at CSPA for design portfolio.

I TOOK THESE PHOTOS

finding my style

The group of guys in the picutre above maximized the number of students featured on the spread, increasing viewership.

I knew I wanted to frame the Kappa League story because it was

I wanted the subjects to express their individuality, so I scheduled photoshoots with them, telling them to wear their most fashionable attire.

Two seniors make fashion priority

I needed a quick infographic, but the school was empty and we were running out of time. As the Social Media Editor for our newspaper’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, I enlisted the help of our students through a different interface. Resourcefulness saved the day.

To capture the camaraderie between the two friends, I paid close attention to their playful banter, expressing their dialogue throughout the story. This is another way I develop characters in my writing, adding a more personal touch to traditional journalism.

Fashion-forward seniors Demario Plott and Quentin Savage grace the hallways with style and class on a near-daily basis; their school wardrobe ranges from collared shirts to suits and ties.

“I feel as though the way you dress shows the level of respect you have for yourself. I’m dressing for success,” Plott said.

Choir teacher Beth McGuire, who teaches both Plott and Savage, said their strong friendship and shared passion for fashion reflects positive attitudes in the classroom as well as in front of an audience.

“They’re a team. They’re both basses in the choir and are talented musically,” McGuire said. “I think [the way they dress] reflects the drive they have for excellence.”

Savage said dressing nicely encourages a “focus on learning” because “you’re not distracted by bad looks.”

“I don’t try to stand out. I just like to look my best,” Savage said.

Plott said he tries to dress up “at least two to three times a week,” unlike Savage who “does it every day.”

“Quentin dresses up more than I do; he takes it to the extreme,” Plott said.

“I do not take it to the extreme!”

Savage argued.

“You wear a seven-piece suit,” Plott said, turning to Savage.

Savage responded, “I wear that when I feel like it. I usually just wake up and think, ‘I’m gonna dress up today.’”

Plott said the two are given different identities by other students -most often girls- on days when they are looking especially sharp.

Savage said that on these days, an alter ego “Quintario Savagé” tends to come out in him.

“They’ll just be like, ‘Oh, look at Pluto and Savagé!’” Plott said.

Mary Elizabeth Tucker, senior, said a similar love for singing and fashion has allowed her to develop a “close friendship” with both Savage and Plott.

“Demario and I love to sing together, and Quentin and I are becoming closer every day,” Tucker said.

As a fan of heels and “long tight dresses,” Tucker said she feels like she’s more likely to achieve in school when she “dresses nice.” She said she wishes more guys would “dress like Quentin dresses.”

“When [guys] have Polo [shirts] on, I’ll be like ‘Mmm!’” Tucker said with a dramatic grin,

slowly closing her eyes to keep the image in her head.

Savage said his favorite items of clothing are indeed “Polo shirts and bow ties.”

“Oh yeah, I like your bow ties,” Grayson O’Bryant, senior, said to Savage.

Along with picking out the right style of clothes, Plott said that choosing colors that compliment his skin tone is of utmost importance.

“Blue is my color,” Plott said.

“Dude, quit it! That’s my favorite color,” Savage said to Plott.

Plott responded, “...I’m sticking with blue.”

“See, I’m wearing blue [right now],” Plott said, pointing to his collared shirt.

“Well, since Plott took my [favorite color to wear], I’d have to go with pink,” Savage said. “‘Cause, you know, a lot of people say it accents my skin tone.”

Savage said that even though Plott and he never plan on dressing up on the same days, sometimes “it just happens.”

“Some days it just seems like we’re wearing the same thing ‘cause [Savage] tries to be like me,” Plott teased, getting the final word.

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CREATIVE USE OF MEDIA - NEWS WRITING

Beauty walk contestants more than just beauties By the way, I am her grandmother.”

My first year on the staff, the beauty walk made a comeback - the previous year it was cancelled becuase nobody signed up. I was assigned to cover the event and take photographs, but after discovering there was no talent section, I wondered if there was anything beyond just the pageantry. I interviewed the families of a few contestants before the event, tracing their progress throughout the event. The news story, written with a bit of a satirical flair, thoroughly covered the event, while also personalizing it, introducing the readers to a cast of colorful characters.

The auditorium, filled with spectators, housed the annual Beauty Walk presented by the SGA on Friday, April 4.

Eager family members sat in reserved seats, waiting to see their beautiful daughters/ granddaughters/nieces walk onto the brightly lit stage. Among them was sophomore Shapyra Butler’s grandmother, Vera Horton and mother, Sheila Butler. Butler said “it sure did” take a lot of preparation for the event. “[Shapyra] was not used to walking in heels, so she has been practicing a lot,” Butler said. “She’s been working on her smile as well…”

“She already had the smile, though,” Horton interrupted. “She got that from her grandmother. In fact, she learned everything about pageants from her grandmother because her grandmother won all the contests when she was in high school.

Horton, decked out in retro sunglasses and a pair of silver braided buns atop her head, said she competed in numerous pageants at Druid High School where she attended.

“I wish they had grandmothergranddaughter fashion shows,” Horton whispered to a friend.

Behind Shapyra’s family sat freshman Jonna Whitley’s mother, father, and younger sister. Shannon McDaniel, Whitley’s mother, said shopping for the perfect dress was the most time-consuming aspect of getting ready.

“I was like, ‘How many dresses do we have to try on?’” added Whitley’s younger sister, exasperated. “But she’s a sassy princess now.”

Another family, supporting freshman Raven Hill, stressed how much work went into preparing Raven for the event. “…getting dresses, fittings, hair, makeup, everything! It’s been days and days and days, but she enjoyed it,” Stark Hill, Raven’s mother, said.

“And we’re gonna be real happy when she wins!”

As the program began, Olivia Wilkes, 2009 graduate and a pageant winner, introduced herself as host. She also introduced judges Kristen Brichden, Allysa Holly and Amy Pugh, along with escorts Tracy Braggs and LaCorey Pratcher to the audience.

One by one, 12 contestants strutted onto the stage, sporting sparkling smiles and dazzling gowns.

“Contestant number three is Shapyra Butler,” Wilkes announced as Butler walked across the stage in a red gown. “She is in the Spanish club, enjoys dancing and reading, and plans to attend college at the University of Alabama at Birmingham to study nursing.”

As Butler descended back into the curtain, Horton stood up in her high heels and led the audience in applause.

After a few more contestants presented themselves to the audience, Wilkes introduced “Contestant number seven, Raven Hill.”

“Hill is on the softball team and is a Beyoncé fan. She aspires to be a singer or to become a Division One softball player,” Wilkes said.

As the last contestant walked

onto the stage, the vast differences between the girls was evident; their dreams, values, likes and dislikes varied from one contestant to the next.

“Contestant number 13 is Jonna Whitley,” Wilkes said. “Jonna is a member of the French club and Alabama Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She wants to become the ‘most fabulous’ veterinarian out there.”

Whitley, sporting an elaborate updo and white bejeweled dress, strutted onto the stage and showed her personality with a sassy smirk. A group of her friends cheered wildly from the back of the auditorium.

Whitley exited and the curtains closed as the judges reviewed their scores, allowing members of the SGA to lead a raffle that involved several surprisingly impressive door prizes. The club managed to receive donations from Soca Clothing (a free pair of jeans), numerous eateries, and even gave away a pair of sunglasses.

The judges reappeared, and the girls formed a line on stage.

Six names were called: Mallie McCleland, freshman, Kayla Johnson, senior Nicole Trayvick, sophomore, Shapyra Butler, sophomore, Mackenzie Millet, senior, and DeErica Lyles, senior.

The final six contestants were asked to move up, transforming the straight line of 12 into a sporadic zigzag. These contestants would participate in round two, “the question round.”

“First up is Miss Shapyra Butler,” Wilkes said into the microphone.

Butler reached into a bowl to pull out a strip of paper that read, “Who is your role model?”

“My role model is my mom…,” Butler answered, referring to her mother in the audience, Sheila Butler.

Applause from the audience ensued as other contestants contrived carefully crafted responses to the questions they were asked.

Mackenzie Millet was among them. Millet, a senior, mentor, president of the Jack and Jill club and LAJ Girl of the Year, practices spoken word poetry and aspires to become a psychologist or pageant coach in the future.

“My one wish would be instant happiness for those with disabilities

because they go through so much pain

­­­­

that they don’t deserve,” Millet said.

Sophomore Nicole Trayvick, an FBLA, dance line, and National Society of Black Engineers member, also received a fair amount of applause for her response to “the one lesson she would teach to others.” “...We all make mistakes that we beat ourselves up for,” Trayvick said.

“But we have to learn to try again.”

The curtains closed once more while the judges decided on the lucky girl to be crowned Miss Northridge.

Wilkes took this opportunity to discuss her experience with pageants.

“It’s such a great experience [to be in a pageant],” Wilkes said. “[pageants] are the largest providers for young women. They encompass scholarship, style, success, and service to allow for a well-rounded contestant. Many of the girls will go on to become CEOs, doctors and teachers.”

A lack of a talent portion of the show became evident as the judges reappeared, ready to announce the winner.

One by one the winners were announced.

Savannah Boyd, freshman, was crowned Miss Congeniality, followed by runnerups Butler, Lyles, and Trayvick.

In the absence of a 2013 Miss Northridge (last year’s beauty walk was called off after little interest was shown), Katrina Struthwolf, Homecoming Queen, was appointed to crown the winners.

Each winner was given a bouquet of red roses and Trayvick, first runnerup, received a crown that matched the one atop Struthwolf ’s head.

“And the new Miss Northridge is...” Wilkes said after asking for a drumroll from the audience. “...

Mackenzie Millet!”

Millet’s jaw dropped as she received roses and a crown from Struthwolf. Millet showed off her gold, jewel encrusted dress and pearly white smile as she posed for a multitude of cameras.

Millet said she was used to the experience because she had participated in pageants before.

“I received a national title: Miss Black Teen Alabama US Ambassador 2014 (I know, it’s a long name)” Millet said with a laugh. “… but I’m very excited to win this title.”

THE ARTS I TOOK THESE PHOTOS I developed an interest in theatre very quickly into my experience on the newspaper staff. I found joy in reviewing school plays, quality productions from an underrepresented drama department. I was often tasked with reviewing and photographing at the same time.

As the Social Media Editor, I organized them in albums on our official Facebook page. These photos increased page viewership dramatically. I upped the ante on our Instagram account as well, creating interactive slideshows of plays and band concerts.

Play Review

Griesbach has a laugh at drama production

Rising stars emerged among drama teacher Donna Wright’s diverse casts of theatre newbies and veterans in “an evening of comedy” on Oct. 7. The

8

production entailed two one-act plays: Oh, What a Tangled Web

by John R. Carroll and Final Dress Rehearsal by Jake Rakes.

Oh, What a Tangled Web, the first play, took place in “a simpler time in Suburbia U.S.” according to the program. The storyline, involving mix-ups, coverups and utter confusion, was

humorously convoluted.

In their living room, the Wilson family mourned the loss of their beloved cat, but little did Frank and Shirley Wilson, played by seniors Jason Snyder and Mary Long, know they would soon become tangled in a sticky web of lies.

Emily McGuire, sophomore, played Jan Wilson exceptionally well. For almost the entirety of the play, McGuire was the perfect spaz; she desperately tried to follow through with an elaborate lie she made up about her sister’s death. Her sister Chris, played by junior

Sally Ozment, had only asked her to cover for her while she snuck out of the house on a date, and she was clueless about the shenanigans about to take place at the Wilsons’ house.

Upon hearing of Chris’ death, her boss Mr. Quigley and his wife arrived at the house in funeral attire, weeping hysterically. Junior Daryn Lewis took the comedic factor of the play up a notch, portraying Mrs. Quigley as an emotional mess.

Mrs. Wilson thought this was all in respect for her fallen feline, but after a saucy affair, a visit from the plumber and an unexpected

PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITING-REVIEW

5

GRIESBACH cont.

homecoming, the “cat was out of the bag.”

The real comedy, however, didn’t take place until after intermission.

The curtains reopened prematurely with stage hands Jay Hubner and Luke Seale, sophomores, scurrying about in the dark. What followed was a “really bad production of Cinderella,” the program said.

Final Dress Rehearsal was indeed bad.

From a comedic standpoint, however, the play was brilliant.

Seniors Charles Lane and Billy Luu starred as a frazzled

director and an author with high expectations, constantly interrupting from seats in the audience as their patience wore thin.

The classic plot of Cinderella was made an excellent mockery by all cast members, but one in particular made quite the debut.

From his performance as the evil stepmother, it was hard to tell that this was junior Jarrod Worley’s first acting experience.

The junior managed stage lights in previous plays, but he ditched the lights for a wig that night.

Worley strutted across the stage and sassed everybody in sight,

never forgetting to fix his hair.

He embodied his role from head to toe, fitted in a flashy purple gown and jewelry.

Playing up the stepmother’s hilariously offensive personality, Worley delivered the line, “Shut up and eat your mush!” towards the cast with a crudely made whip in hand. I, already in a fit of laughter, was now overcome with a sidesplitting guffaw.

Worley’s performance and the accompaniment of his fellow staff made an evening of comedy live up to its name; it was a production well worth

This review recieved Honorable Mention for Newspaper Reviews at the 2015 ASPA State Convention.

going to.

SOCIAL MEDIA/ENTREPRENEURSHIP

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NOT YOUR AVERAGE ATHLETE BREADTH OF SPORTS COVERAGE

This story, written my first year on the staff, won 2nd place sports story at the 2014 ASPA State Convention.

I’ve never been athletically inclined, nor have I had a genuine interest in sports. As a newbie on the staff, however, I was required to provide consistent beat coverage for the softball and soccer teams. As I grew as a writer, I focused more on the sports that were rarely covered, like rowing, wrestling and - yes, this is Alabama - the fishing team. I put my own spin on sports writing, turning stories into something people like me would enjoy reading.

CORY GAYLE, SENIOR

“

“

A SPECIAL REQUEST It’s not WWE. It’s not play... You gotta be willing to work hard.

Coach looks for new players for wrestling team New wrestling coach Shane Ashcraft was my ninth grade English teacher. Impressed by my writing, he recommended me to join The Norhtridge Reporter. At the start of my junior year on the staff, he approached my advisor and specifically requested that I write this story (scan to read).

I TOOK THESE PHOTOS

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High school rowing team started

The Northridge rowing team, under the guidance of Row Alabama, is a competitive racing club directed at high school students. Three years ago, Ted Sekeres, certified Class 2 US Rowing Coach, incorporated the club as a non-profit organization.

“I created the club for two reasons,” Sekeres said. “One: There is a void in Alabama for the sport of rowing, and varsity coach, Larry Davis, was very desirous of having a source of high school students involved in the sport. Two: Rowing is a good opportunity for Tuscaloosa students to get a scholarship.”

Sekeres said 22-25 scholarships are given to high school rowers each year.

“The sport of rowing provides more scholarships than any other women’s sport. One out of every two rowers that try out for a team will get a scholarship,” Sekeres said.

Bert McCleland, sophomore, is a member of the team. He said rowing is a good opportunity to exercise.

“I joined because I’m not involved in any other sports and rowing has always seemed very interesting to me,” McCleland said.

Ryan MacVicar, sophomore says she will join next year when she can drive and her schedule is more flexible.

“My mom participates in the adult team and said it was really fun,” MacVicar said. “I also wanted

to do it because I thought it would be good cross-training for golf.”

The sport not only provides scholarship opportunities, but is very good exercise. Sekeres said rowing is the “best aerobic sport possible.”

“Rowing for 20 minutes is equivalent to playing two professional basketball games,” Sekeres said.

MacVicar said the canoes can hold up to eight people plus the coxswain; someone who is small and sits in the back to make sure everyone is rowing at the same time.

“You have to learn how to stay with the person you are rowing with. That’s probably the most difficult part,” MacVicar said.

Practices are held on Monday, Thursday, and Sunday at the UA boat house on 2nd Ave in Northport. Non-baggy clothing is encouraged. McCleland said the team is currently working on speed and might be doing races in the spring.

Sekeres said rowing is the “ultimate team sport.”

“It is very exhilarating to compete and row at the same time,” said Sekeres. “When everybody learns to row together, it is so harmonious and synchronized.”

MacVicar and McCleland both recommend others to join the team.

“It is a good opportunity to get to know people and to do something different,” MacVicar said.

PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITING-SPORTS

Fishing team may appeal to non-athletes

said.

Smith and the boys began the planning process in the summer; Austin said they attended meetings with other schools to work out the logistics that come along with starting a new team.

“Right now we’re waiting on me to meet with the State Director on Oct. 22,” Smith said.

“Sign-ups will be the following week.”

Principal Kyle Ferguson said he taught a tournament fishing MIKE SMITH, FOOTBALL COACH class of about 30 students during “Tiger Time” at Thomasville High School. “[Thomasville] was on a block schedule with monitoring children and a skinny period [that lasted] keeping them safe is no 50 minutes,” Ferguson said. different,” he said. “But with “Anybody with a C-average fishing, I’m just a passer in a or above could participate boat. [The students’] parents in ‘Tiger Time.’ We offered are coaching, and they’re on anything from aerobics, grilling their own.” and scrapbooking.”

The team’s low-key Ferguson said that although atmosphere provides students “it’s hard to find time to who don’t participate in spring dedicate to it,” the team’s sports or “need something to do founders and he are working on Saturdays” a chance to get

“

involved in the school, Smith said.

“It’s kinda like campin’ on the water, but with prizes,” Smith said. “You don’t have to be the biggest or the fastest. You just have to be persistent and keep that lure in the water.”

While the sport may be more relaxed than most contact sports, Smith said it’s important to take advantage of everything it has to offer.

“The thing about fishing is that it’s humbling. You could do everything right and not catch a thing. The other guy could do everything wrong and fill the boat up,” Smith said. “But if you don’t have a competitive spirit, it’s a long day on the water.”

Ferguson, a tournament fisherman for 15 years, said fishing competitively reaps both monetary and personal benefits.

“It’s great for stress relief, and it’s also a good source of income,” he said.

Some of Ferguson’s students at Thomasville went on to the University of Alabama and Auburn University to take the skills they learned in “Tiger Time” even further.

“You could get a major in wildlife biology; there’s a lot of science involved.

Migration, pH levels and weather patterns all go back to fishing,” Ferguson said.

Smith said that to some, fishing can become a “lifelong thing.”

“You can get scholarships.

You can get paid. You can make a living with this,” Smith said.

“That’s the unique thing about it.”

It’s kinda like campin’ on the water, but with prizes.

“

Following in the footsteps of three Tuscaloosa area schools, head football coach Mike Smith took the initiative to add another sport to his coaching repertoire: fishing.

“I knew kids in the area liked to fish, so I contacted other schools that had [a fishing team],” Smith said.

Seniors North Patterson and Austin Smith, Smith’s son, are the team’s original members.

The friends said they have been fishing since they were little.

“One day at football, Coach Smith asked me if I wanted to fish with him, and I said ‘absolutely,’” Patterson said.

That moment sparked Smith’s, Austin’s, and Patterson’s interest in starting a fishing team at the school.

“Basically, everybody else has [a fishing team],” Patterson said, noting Tuscaloosa County High School, Hillcrest High School, and American Christian Academy.

“It’s starting to get big.”

“We saw [high school fishing teams] growing, even out west, and wanted to start one,” Austin

with Lake Harbor Marina to start up the team as soon as possible.

“It’s a priority; we have a definite interest,” he said.

Sign-ups are open to any male or female in grades 7-12 with access to a boat. Smith said applicants must be willing to have a partner and adult in the boat. “[Fishing] is a chance for students to get to have some father/son or father/daughter time,” Smith said. “When kids get in high school, it’s hard [for parents] to find time to hang out with them.”

Smith said his leadership on the fishing team has its differences and similarities to coaching football.

“The responsibility of

My beat for junior year was the fishing team, and as a non-athlete, I was elated to cover them. I’m all about a variety of options for students to get involved, so I traced the humble beginnings of the school’s first fishing team and made sure to note the ins and outs of the club, including potential scholarship opportunities. After my story was published, the school followed suit in creating new teams for other non-athletes, including tbe bowling team.

WRITING-SPORTS

11

A BALANCING ACT

In addition to exposing all parts of student life, I wanted to share what it’s like for those who try to do it all - a story similar to my own.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD This spread also placed at the 2015 ASPA State Convention carry-in contest, in which I won 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Honortable Mention for the four feature spreads I entered.

The concept for the spread was to boost student health, in part by showing how dangerous it can be to overextend ourselves in a climate where it’s expected of us. This spread helped introduce me to more indepth stories further down the road.

I TOOK THIS PHOTO I wanted to stage an environmental portrait, so I asked the subject to dig in her backpack and lay out what most closely represented her. I placed them on white butcher paper we had in our closet, climbed onto a ladder and shot the picture.

Taxing schedules negatively affect students’ health Combined stress from extracurriculars, responsibilities at home and the rigor of Advanced Placement (AP), honors and college courses can be detrimental to a student’s physical and mental health.

“We talk about things like that all the time in class. Tryouts, standardized tests and relationships can all be very stressful,” health teacher David Akins said.

General Adaptation Syndrome (GAS), he said, is a term used to describe the way “your body changes in relation to stress.”

“One of the biggest things we see is that stress breaks down the immune system,” Akins said.

This happens during the third stage of GAS, the exhaustion stage. Unlike the first two stages -the alarm and resistant stages- which Akins said “happen on a regular basis and are very normal,” the exhaustion stage occurs “when things get serious.”

“Sometimes you have to have external involvement,” Akins said.

“When body functions break down [during the exhaustion stage], it might involve admission to the hospital.”

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Extreme medical cases caused by stress are not especially common, but the buildup of minor everyday stressors can take a toll on students, junior Julia Cain said.

“Stress and anxiety is good to some extent because without it, there’s no push to get anything done. When it gets to be too much, however, it has negative effects on every aspect of your life- mental, emotional and physical,” Cain said.

Cain, a psychology student, studied “stress, coping, and well-being” in chapter 11 of her Access course this semester. She said background stressors, or “daily hassles,” can contribute to “increased hormonal activities and psychophysiological disorders such as “high blood pressure, headaches and backaches” as well as harmful behaviors like sleep and nutrition deprivation and increased drug use.

“Everyday annoyances... may have long-term effects, whereas stronger stressors (like tornadoes or terrorist attacks) may produce less stress in the long run,” Cain said as she flipped through her notes.

Along with taking Access,

University of Alabama Early College, AP and honors classes, Cain also belongs to three instrumental groups: marching and concert band, Tuscaloosa Youth Orchestra and First Wesleyan Church’s orchestra.

In conjunction with balancing her activities, Cain said she tends to get sick “halfway through the year,” around the time of band’s Music Performance Assessment.

“I don’t take days off because of things I can’t miss,” Cain said. “...So when I get sick, the symptoms are amplified by stress.”

Cain recalled a week in which she had church and band-related duties after school for five consecutive days, all while fighting back illness.

“I remember that week specifically,” Cain said. “I had a really bad cold where I could hardly breathe... but, you know, it happens. Stress is like a never-ending cycle. Being stressed out leads to getting sick, which leads to missing school, which leads to more stress of getting extra work done.”

Cain’s fellow band member, junior Authentic Sims, said that in addition to Early College, honors classes and preparing for All State, he has

responsibilities at home.

“I have to babysit my little brother every day after school,” Sims said. “I stopped taking AP classes because it was too stressful and time-consuming.

Stress makes me want to give up.”

Junior Shelby Castellanos, AP student and soccer player, said her activities have negatively affected her health, according to her doctor at University Medical Center.

“Apparently, I developed acid reflux because of stress,” Castellanos said.

Castellano’s teammate, sophomore Terry Millsaps, is an active member of four clubs and takes eight classes - two of which are UA Early College and Access courses. The chronic headaches she suffers from, Millsaps said, correlate with the increased workload.

“Sometimes, if it’s a really bad week, I’ll even get sick to my stomach,” she said.

During one of these “really bad weeks,” Millsaps said she sacrificed her health in order to get everything done.

“It was one of those weeks where I could not eat or sleep because I had to do so much,” Millsaps said. “I

DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY/WRITING-FEATURE

STRESS cont. had a ton (about ten assignments per day) of [online] Spanish [homework and classwork], soccer tryouts and a project or test in every class. When I didn’t have soccer, I had meetings.”

Millsaps said she tries to balance out the negative effects of her busy schedule with healthy coping mechanisms.

“I try to exercise every day, not procrastinate and spend time with friends,” she said.

Akins said he encourages “getting away from the stress;” students should try to relax or listen to music.

“Teenagers need eight hours of

Coincidentally, I wrote this story while balancing studying with Cain for midterms. As I was able to see for myself the rigorous coursework she put herself through, I combined anecdotal and statistical evidence to expose an issue that’s all to real for a large portion of our student body: stress.

sleep,” Akins said.

Cain said she combines two styles of coping with stress and anxiety that she learned about in class.

“Emotion-based coping means changing the way you think about a situation. If you have a fight with your friend, you can change your attitude by looking on the brighter side,” Cain said. “Problem-based coping means changing how you physically react to a situation. For example, if you have homework, you do it.”

Cain said that her attitude towards a stressor has a great deal of influence on her overall stress level.

“I used to go to a lot of concerts that my friends would stress for months about for my own enjoyment.

The stress towards the concert came out more as excitement because I was doing it for fun,” Cain said. “Even schoolwork in classes I enjoy doesn’t seem as stressful - even if there is a larger load - as work in classes I don’t like.”

Procrastination is the worst way to deal with stress; Cain said she puts away her distractions and takes time to “figure out a plan.”

“I get at my work and slay it,” she said.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD This issue was to come out just days after our exchange (p.30-37), so after a day reporting at Bryant High School, I drove back to my school to finish this page. In the midst of studying for AP exams and the ACT myself, this spread elaborated on the stressful nature of the last couple months of school.

I MADE THIS After attending a Saturday workshop at the ASPA State Conference, I sat down with UA students Alex Hauser and Anna Waters as they taught me how to use Adobe Illustrator. The desk is made entirely of shapes - no clip art whatsoever. I used the perspective grid on Illustrator and warped the shapes to angle the chair inwards.

DESIGN/ILLUSTRATION

For the backdrop of the spread, I took a photo of our journalism/English classroom, faded it out and whited out the white board in Photoshop.

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DESIGN/WRITING-IN DEPTH/ACTIVISM

handling with care

ANECDOTAL LEDE

Two students’ lives cut short by empty bottles, revv of engines

15

With a half-empty bottle of Pinnacle beer and car keys in hand, a sophomore left the party scene and made an intoxicated journey back home.

“We was havin’ a party for my sister, right? So, we was, like, we was getting thown, you know what I’m sayin’, at the party. I had messed around. I was drinkin’ a lot, and I, uh... I had to drive home. And, uh... I had really liked what I was drinkin’, so I asked her if I could take it with me. So, you know, I had got in the car, crunk it up and had drunk one more swallow, and then laid it down... you know what I’m sayin’? So at

this point, I’m kinda gone. And I just… take off. I mean, like, I did pretty good drivin’. I mean, I was swervin’, but… I made it home,” he said.

As he surveyed students walking past him in the hallway, the sophomore said, “You know, there’s a lot of crazy people here.”

“A lot...” he started to say, with a faint chuckle showing his gleaming white teeth, “Yeah... a lot [of students] would drink and drive.” His smile faded as he leaned back into the wall.

Drunk driving is a “dirty little secret” among students, math teacher Scott

Johnson said. “…and as long as it continues to be a dirty little secret, kids are going to continue to do it,” he said.

For Johnson, the issue hits home.

On Aug. 23, 2006, at five a.m. on a school day, Johnson said he got a “phone call you never really want to get.”

It was a call about Adam, his son.

“It was a single car accident,” he said. “...all I knew at the time of the phone call was what time it had happened, what he hit, and that he had not survived.”

Upon arriving at the scene of the

This was the first large issue I tackled; my advisor encouraged me to take this story over the other editors. Johnson was a former teacher of mine and had been teaching at the school longer than almost anybody else. An interview with him this personal was, to say the least, daunting. I found a student to begin and end the story with, connecting the issue with the student body. I then told the story of two young people - one a perpetrator and one a victim of drunk driving - to show that anyone can fall victim to irresponsible behaviors. The story ultimately prompted the Student Government Association to contact a local junkyard, find a dilapidated car (pictured) and place it at the front of our school as a warning sign for students.

This was the first spread I’ve designed with a story over 1500 words, so conserving space was an obstacle. I decided to split the story into two parts, Adam and Margie, and bridge them together with the photos and title. I let this story become the main focus, framing it with another story and an infographic running along the bottom.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD

that was part of a portfolio that won a Certificate of Merit at CSPA.

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INFOGRAPHIC/ILLUSTRATION

I DESIGNED THIS

of good support both from friends and family and I thought had good judgment,’” Johnson said, “but it only takes one bad decision.”

“If I can get a kid to at least think about what could happen if they made that bad decision - to just stop for five seconds and just think about what they’re doing - and keep them from making a bad decision like that, that’s all I’m trying to do,” he said.

“Pressure to conform” and less emphasis on the “nuclear family,” however, render “kids more susceptible to [irresponsible behaviors] than they used to be,” Johnson said.

“A lot of these things they watch and listen to seem to condone bad behavior and bad decision-making,” he said. “And then you couple that with the erosion of the family, which we’re also seeing in society now. A lot of kids are being brought up in single-parent homes or no-parent homes.”

Building awareness to the issue, Johnson said, can only happen if we learn to recognize and address students’ short attention spans and “continually reinforce” efforts to make an impact.

“You know, if you park a car out front [of the school] that has been involved with an accident, [students] might remember it for as long as it stays out there,” Johnson said. “It’s not enough to say, ‘Okay, don’t drink and drive.’ That’s obviously not doing anything. It needs to be more, ‘If you drink and drive, this is what might happen:’ This could be you, or it could be your best friend or your girlfriend, or it could be your mother.”

The consequences of an act as irresponsible as driving under the influence can devastate those left behind.

Margaret Johnson was her best friend.

“I wish I didn’t have to tell this story.

I wish Margaret was here today, but she’s not. And it doesn’t get any better, it does last; it never goes away,” Meredith Cummings, journalism professor at the University of Alabama, said.

Cummings met Johnson, a native of Leesburg, Florida, in Tutwiler Hall their freshmen year. She said their friendship blossomed when they became sorority sisters.

“I called her Margie,” Cummings

“If I could be at the bar with him, I would ask him what the problem is in his life that [caused him to] care so little about himself. That he would get in a car and drive drunk... Because, he did that. And, um... you know,” she started to say before letting out a sigh. “I am anti-death penalty, and I don’t believe in killing anybody, ever, but I gotta say, I wasn’t too sad when he passed away.”

To help teenagers put the potential consequences of drunk driving into perspective, Cummings said she would ask them to “imagine their favorite person in the world” and place them in the shoes of Margie and her mother.

“You don’t want to be that [driver].

That’s not something you can get rid of,” she said. “Yeah, you can go to jail; you can serve your debt to society, but that never leaves your conscience. You’re stuck with it for the rest of your life, and that’s a pretty heavy debt to carry.”

Though underage drinking is illegal, Cummings said she acknowledges the fact that high school students will “do it anyways.” The “real danger” with this, she said, is when teenagers try to “cover it up.”

“They’re hiding it from their parents, and they’re hiding it from their teachers because they know they’ll get in trouble,” Cummings said. “...they want to get home on time before they get in trouble, so they drive because that’s ‘the best way to do it.’”

The best way to do it, Cummings said, “is not rocket science.”

“Call a cab. Call a friend. Pick up the phone and press some numbers,” she said. “I really believe any parent would rather get a phone call from their child who is completely falling down drunk saying, ‘Come get me Mom or Dad,’ than get a phone call from the morgue.

Any of us would.”

If he had known about Adam or Margie; if he had experienced someone close to him pass away due to the conscious decisions of someone else, the sophomore said he would have thought twice about driving home from his sister’s house.

“If you drunk, you cannot drive,” he said. “I wouldn’t ever do it again because, you know, I’m not that type of person to drink and drive. I know right from wrong. I admit, I shouldn’t have ever did it that night. ‘Cause, you know what I’m sayin’, usually I have a ride with someone. But I drove that night…

And that was my first and only time.”

ENDED WITH BEGINNING

accident in Knoxville, Johnson started to dig deeper. He said the speed at which Adam had turned a curve on Kingston Pike (a “pretty wide four-lane road”) was “excessively fast.”

“He lost control of the car and smacked into a utility pole, and he hit the pole hard enough that it tore the car in half,” Johnson said.

Adam was a gap-year student, he said. A year after graduating high school, Adam had plans to start classes at the University of Tennessee.

“A lot of these kids were moving in; I think he went from party to party that night, come to find out,” Johnson said.

“As a matter of fact, he was gonna crash at a friend’s apartment, and the friend that he was gonna stay with actually made him give her his car keys; she was very adamant about him not driving.

But sometime during the night, he got up and got his car keys and got in his car.”

Although Adam grew up with his mother, Johnson’s first wife, for “most of his life,” Johnson said his relationship with his son was “as close as you can be without living with somebody.”

Johnson said his and Adam’s conversations amounted to the “usual things parents would tell their kids,” like “‘Don’t make stupid decisions,’ and, ‘Try to think about what you’re doing.’”

“I always thought he had pretty good judgment. That’s why it came as a surprise,” he said.

Adam’s social circle, Johnson said, ranged from the “pretty responsible” to the “probably not as responsible.”

“Your friends have influences, but it’s gotta be you that makes the good decisions,” he said. “In the end, it’s going to be your decision that’s going to have an effect on what happens to you.”

Nevertheless, Johnson said all of Adam’s friends were “greatly saddened by what happened.”

“And for a while, [the accident] might have even changed them a little bit,” he said. “I don’t know how long it lasted; maybe it did make them think a little bit before they acted.”

For “several years” since Adam’s death, Johnson said he tries to use the accident as a “teachable moment to the kids.”

“I tell them, ‘here’s a kid that was raised by a good family and had a lot

said. “And I remember so many wonderful qualities about her... Margie was so sweet; she was just a really kind and gentle person, would not hurt a fly, very devoted to her studies... She wanted to be a nurse – and that’s very much like her; she was a caretaker.”

From “one a.m. TCBY runs” to sorority formals, to extended summer visits in “sunny and warm” Leesburg, Cummings said she and Margie “just had so much fun together.”

“I loved her laugh,” Cummings said.

“When she laughed, the only way to describe it is like, if you’ve ever had a McDonald’s cup or anything, and you move the straw up and down, and it goes, ‘Err Err Err Err!’ That’s how she laughed.”

Cummings said she thinks about Margie every day.

“I woke up this morning thinking about her,” she said. “I woke up and I was like, ‘God, I would love to see the woman that she would have become.’ I would have loved to have seen the mom – You know, she was always gonna have lots of kids; she would have been a killer mom. And it just breaks my heart... I was robbed of that opportunity to see… to hear… what magnificent things she would have done.”

On Dec. 23, 1993, just after the first semester of her junior year, Johnson and her mother were driving from a relative’s house on a two-lane road when a man came over a hill and hit them head-on.

“He just blew the blood-alcohol level off the charts,” Cummings said.

The car behind them saw the whole thing. Margie’s dad, brother and sister were in that car.

“I wish I could come up with a one-hundred percent foolproof plan or program so that I could make sure this never happened to anybody else,” Cummings said. “...but we’re all humans, and we’re not invincible.”

Cummings returned to Leesburg, a place that she said was filled with great memories of her and Margie, to attend the funeral.

In the parking lot, there was a truck.

And on that truck, Cummings said, written “really large,” in “that kind of paint like you do at homecoming,” were the words, “My friend was killed by a dumb, drunk jerk.”

“And that’s exactly how we all felt,” she said.

The driver died just before New Year’s, Cummings said.

Adding the perspective of a victim of somebody else’s actions would add more depth to the story. My advisor knew of a journalism professor who had such an experience, so I scheduled a phone interview with her to get her side of the story.

ADAM & MARGIE cont.

Our infographics editor started this, making the plain cars and a blank road, but she didn’t have time to finish it. This was my first time using Adobe Illustrator for an infographic. I remembered learning about force and stopping distance in physics class, so I wrote a few problems down for my teacher to work out. I then combined the information in a cohesive design, providing a formula to explain the math behind it. This won 2nd place for Newspaper Illustration at the ASPA state convention.

[

GAINING TRUST

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD

Directly following the spead on drunk driving, our staff decided to tackle another prominent issue in our community: student drug abuse. This spread was also part of a portfolio that recieved a Certificate of Merit from CSPA. Because we had three indepth features, the spread was bound to be textheavy. To combat this, I pulled a quote from one of the stories and linked it to our website. Since my story was over 2000 words, I broke it up into three parts according to the three prominent voices in the story.

[

16

Gateway drug paves life of experimentation, substance abuse for three seniors

After consuming a cannabis confection concocted by his senior classmate, a junior and self-proclaimed “drug virgin” took his first steps into the hallucinogenic world of weed.

“These were very very weak pot brownies,” the senior said coolly. “Typically, you have about three and a half grams per twelve brownies. I only put just under a gram.”

Already knee-deep into the dangerous waters of recreational drugs, the senior and two of his classmates said marijuana is where they started, too.

The first senior, a relative newbie to the weed scene, said he just started smoking marijuana two months ago.

“If anything, you could say it

Since all of these seniors were friends, I found a way to start the story with this one event, which then delved into each individual story.

ANECDOTAL LEDE

Our principal was wary of my concept for the feature spread, worried it would put these individuals in too much of a spotlight. I assured him that we would handle the topic with care, granting anonymity to the interviewees since we were reporting on illegal activities. The articles, specifically my own, focused on students’ points of view, ones made credible by their own experiences surrounding excessive drug use and “experimentation.” The drug debate is real and is very alive in our newsroom, and I wanted to show that we can spread positive awareness without demonizing the individuals who dare to speak up - these efforts were later appreciated by the interviewees and ultimately our principal. In a later spread (pages 20-21) I used the same approach to discuss problems with drinking on campus. With a deeper connection to these interviewees and the stories they shared, however, I was disappointed to read the staff editorial, which seemed to be a scathing condemnation of drug users. I talked to the writer and suggested that he should change his approach when representing an opinion of the whole staff, and worked with him to revise it. Reporting on these stories has taught me more lessons than I will ever know in empathy and understanding, but most importantly, it taught me that the subjects of a story speak higher volumes than those who hold distant, disconnected judgements.

was peer pressure,” he said. “My friends were doing it. I wanted to try it. It was kind of a social experiment for me, cause I wanted to get to that place where people said they were always at.

They were like, ‘I’m on top of the world,” and I’m like, “Okay, well, what is that feeling?”

It was marijuana, the senior said, that opened the door to another substance.

“I was going to pick up weed, and when I was at – of course – a sketchy apartment with sketchy high schoolers... they said, ‘Hey, we’re going to Walmart to get some Air Duster. Do you want to try it?’’ he said. “... and I was like, ‘I.... do not know what that is... maybe.’”

The senior did, in fact, go with

these “sketchy high schoolers” to purchase the substance. He watched one of them lift up their shirts to their mouth, filter the substance through and deeply inhale it “as if you were inhaling a balloon full of helium.” The senior reached for his phone and looked the substance up, searching for an answer as to what it could do to him if he were to try it, too.

“Essentially, it’s heavier than oxygen, so it goes in your lungs, and it just sits there, because your lungs can’t take it in as oxygen... so it cuts off everything in your body that needs oxygen,” he said, referencing his research.

AP Psychology teacher Erin Baggett said that while they are legal and easily accessible, there

are people who will buy aerosolbased products from “Office Depot” or “Walmart” just to huff them.

“Huffing is very serious to the point where it could lead to damaging brain cells,” she said. “...The high is very temporary, so a lot of times, you see people have maybe thirty minutes to an hour on the high, and then they’ll go back down and have to do it again.”

The only way the senior could describe the experience, he said, was “drowning, but painless.”

“It will put you on your a**.

You just sit there, and you’re loopy. Some people drool... I sit there, and I just smile,” he said, expressionless. “Is it good? No. Not at all. I don’t even know if I

DESIGN/WRITING-IN-DEPTH

cs

His dependence on antidepressants, the third senior said, is rooted in a volatile relationship with his father, who introduced him to marijuana before he even hit the third grade.

“I was seven years old,” he said. “My dad was very deep into drugs, and he did drugs all his life, so I smoked weed with him.

Then, when I was eleven, that happened...”

He hung his head and fidgeted with his hands.

“That had nothing to do with drugs,” the second senior said to him.

“Yeah, it did...” he said back.

“Alcohol?” she said.

“I was on drugs, too…” he said. “I was crossfaded for the first time.”

“It was with my best friend at the time,” he said. “...his dad and my dad were both drug dealers.

One day [he] invites me over for drinks, and I was eleven so I didn’t know what he meant by drinks; I thought he meant like sodas, orange juice and chocolate milk or something like that.”

There were party favors, too.

Just not the kind he thought there would be.

After walking in to find a “big pack of Heineken” beer sitting on the table, the boy and his friend welcomed an older girl inside. Clasped in her hand was a bag of marijuana. “...And I didn’t know crossfaded was the term for what... I was gonna go... into,” he said. “I was very dizzy. I felt like I was going to puke. I had this massive headache, because your mind is going like one

LAW AND ETHICS

way and the other. It’s like – it’s weird. And everything was like spinning for me.”

The effects of mixing a “huge amount of alcohol with any kind of drug,” such as the experience described by the senior, can be deadly, Baggett said. “...Whether it’s Sudafed, Tylenol... birth control [or] anxiety medication, just the combination of how much alcohol you drink and how many pills you’ve taken on top of it...

It could be a lethal combination, without [you] even realizing it,” she said.

The senior sat on the couch, crossfaded.

“My head hurts...” he said. “I want to puke, but I don’t want to puke...”

He was eleven. His best friend was twelve. By the time he reached the girl’s age, he would be into much harder drugs.

He was just fourteen when he “snorted a line of coke.”

“That was the last time I did that...” he said. “Basically, molly is like taking five [Adderalls].

Cocaine is like ten.”

Cocaine, Baggett said, is “right up there with meth” as far as the level of damage it can do to a user’s body.

“The heart, breathing, lung capacity [can all be affected],” she said. “And it’s very addicting.”

Although that was his first and last time with cocaine in particular, the senior said his recreational drug use didn’t simmer down until his dad was “out of the picture,” too.

“It happened in 2013,” he said.

“We owned [a restaurant]... He ran out of money, because he spent all his money on drugs,” he said. “...so he decided he was going to go to [the restaurant] and steal like a box of shipments so he could sell it for 100 bucks.

So he did that, and he got caught on camera, and that’s when we lost the restaurant.”

The senior said his dad’s drug use did not cease after the incident.

“He really... he needed drugs, cause he couldn’t... he was gonna suffer from withdrawals and he didn’t want to do that,” he said.

“So he eventually started selling

all of our – all of my stuff.

“I decided to stay at [a friend’s] house,” he said. “And then, two days before Christmas, I came home... and I noticed that he was gone, and that my dad’s friend was there. He said, ‘Oh, your dad left for New York... this morning. He took the bus.’ He didn’t call me or tell me that he was leaving. “...My mom comes back [from visiting relatives] and sees everything that has happened,” he said. “You know, this house that no one’s lived in, and the rent’s due. It was late. We had to pay for it still. Dad’s gone.

We lost the restaurant and everything, and I’m not at the house anymore. “...My parents kinda ditched me and I was forced to become... a young adult and all,” he said with a sigh. “I was f***ing sad about that whole thing; it gave me depression and all that.”

The senior quietly chuckled, his fingers fidgeting with a toothpick, and then went silent.

“I used to smoke weed a lot. I would do hard drugs...” he said.

“I completely stopped that whole junior year, because of what I saw with my dad.”

It wasn’t too hard for him to stop, the senior said, because he “wasn’t addicted,” but he still managed to have some slip ups during his senior year.

“I did shrooms at the beginning of the school year, and [in January], this person and I, we snorted molly,” he said. ”Principal Kyle Ferguson, who has worked in public and innercity schools all over the state, said that bringing these habits into a school environment is “not unique to Northridge.”

“Kids do drugs,” he said. “It will kill you. It will destroy you.

It will knock you off the tracks of life, no doubt about it.”

Life’s too short to just learn from your mistakes, Ferguson said. “You gotta learn from other people’s mistakes.”

“If you throw away your last two years of high school because you made some poor decisions, it’s hard to get that back,” he said.

The interview with the third senior was by far the most disturbing interview I’ve gotten while on the staff, but I was able to make him feel completely comfortable opening up to me about the issue. In a rough draft, the story was about 3000 words. It detailed an extremely sexually explicit event from the interviewee’s past, in connection with his excessive and underage drug use. While provocative, I determined it would ultimately detract from the focus of the story, so I cut it out of the final draft so as to avoid unneccesary sensationalism of the issue.

A second senior said her drug habits started when she was introduced to weed as a freshman.

“I was in PE, and everyone was like, ‘We’re going to the tennis courts to smoke weed,’ so I was just like, ‘Okay, whatever, I guess that’s the cool thing to do now,’” she said. “So I went to the tennis court with those people, and then more people were smoking weed, so we just joined in with them. And then I went back to class. “...That’s where I started screwing up. It’s where I thought things were cool in high school.

Now I’m a senior, and there’s consequences...”

She wasn’t experimenting with drugs alone. Upon forming a relationship with a third senior, the second senior said the couple began to dabble in a variety of drugs, moving from one substance to the other in order to avoid addiction.

“We’re, like, really openminded, so we like try everything like once, but we’re not like addicts where we would do it more than once,” she said.

With her own mental and physical scars to show, the second senior said she would not advise anyone to begin using drugs in such a manner because it can lead to not only health problems, but psychological problems as well.

“The minute you do it, you kinda, like, get this feeling of always wanting to feel better, or different,” she said. “Once you start feeling different, you’re not content with feeling sober all the time.”

“Yeah, it’s like, ‘I just wanna get high,’” the third senior said. “...There’s other things out there that you can have fun with than just doing something that will ruin your life.”

“Plus, it’s such a waste of money,” she said. “Like, you’ll buy a gram of weed for $20, and then you’ll smoke it, and then it’s gone.”

However independent of these drugs they may claim to be, the seniors have a particular hunch

for prescription drug abuse when it comes to daily intake.

“I am on Adderall right now,” she said.

“Right now, I’m on antidepressants,” he said. “...I was prescribed for them, but, I kind of... wanted to get on it, ‘cause I love the medicine and all that, ‘cause it feels good.”

“But you need that,” she said to him.

“Not really...” he said back.

“I’ve been taking it when I... want to.”

MAINTAINING ETHICS

think weed is good or not yet...”

17

We couldn’t find any old pictures of Coach McNabb, so a page editor settled for a highly pixelated photo he scavenged from Facebook to put on the cover (right). I offered my Photoshop skills to make the cover more visually appealing, fading in an old photo of the coach with a new one our photographer took. Completed around 3 a.m. after laying out three other pages that were not finished by page editors, I was able to revamp the cover just before deadline.

[

I DESIGNED THIS PAGE

[

Knowing this would be a large story, I joined with our Sports Editor to share my prior experience writing about sensitive topics.

This came out in the first issue of my senior year, following coverage of drugs and drunk driving, so I was well-equipped to lend a hand to my fellow staffers.

I learned from this story just how great an outcome can be when I work with others. Throughout my senior year, I continued to reach out to newer staff members, gradually acclimating them to tougher stories.

DON MCNABB

Students, faculty remember life and legacy of Coach Don McNabb

As a high school majorette, it’s often difficult to report on football games. I delegated my cowriter to interview McNabb’s family on the sidelines, while the rest of the lede amounted to observation.

We wanted to portray the coach just as his daughter described him: a father, friend and mentor. So we embarked on a series of interviews, ranging from those who have known him all his life to those who were fairly new friends of his. We also made sure we interviewed some of the students he made an impact on.

The most powerful interview came from Coach McNabb’s lifelong best friend, Coach David Akins. Knowing the subject would be hard for him to speak on, we approached Akins carefully, focusing more on the history of their friendship than reliving a death.

18

It’s the annual matchup against Tuscaloosa County High School, but the imminent chance of beating an ageold rival is not the only reason hundreds of fans are packed in the concrete stadium. As the band marches down the field, head coach Mike Smith and the family of Don McNabb stand for a moment of silence to honor a great father, teacher and coach.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” the band begins to play as the football players crouch to one knee and the stands fall silent in remembrance of a school figurehead, a man who “lived his life right.”

The offensive line coach and health teacher passed away just the night before - after five and a half months of battling kidney complications.

“It was very out of the ordinary, and we knew it had to be serious,” April Allen, McNabb’s daughter, said.

“We put our trust in the Lord and the doctors and staff of DCH and UAB.

We knew he was in good hands.”

Allen said her dad was “always healthy,” and throughout “a lot of ups and downs” of his condition, he managed to surprise his doctors with his improvements in the months before his passing.

“He would say, ‘Come on guys, I’m okay,’” she said. “He was always a fighter and he never quit at anything he did.”

Strong faith helped the family through this difficult time, assuring them McNabb’s spirit would live on.

“My dad is okay, he is healed and no longer in pain,” she said. “My dad loved the Lord, and there is no absolute doubt where he is going. He’s living in Heaven with Jesus.

Allen, an only child, said she never left her father’s side.

“I was a daddy’s girl, and he was my biggest fan,” she said.

Allen said she grew up in a household where football and class discussions were the talk of the table.

“We knew the love he had for his students,” she said. “The passion he showed at home, he showed at school.”

The McNabb family played a part in every aspect of the coach’s career, establishing lifelong relationships with fellow coaches and teachers.

“We were very, very close,” coach David Akins said. “Our families were close; his daughter babysat my kids growin’ up… we just spent an awful lot of time together.”

A friend of the family for 35 years, Akins met McNabb, a new baseball coach for Tuscaloosa Academy, while umpiring their games in the early 80’s.

The two went on to coach football at competing area schools - Central and Tuscaloosa County High School maintaining fierce competition with each other until 1992, when McNabb came to Central as an offensive line coach.

Akins, Central’s offensive coordinator at the time, said he was able

DESIGN/WRITING-IN DEPTH/LEADERSHIP

to work closely with McNabb and witness

some of his friend’s finest moments.

Halftime of the 1995 state championship game stuck out in particular.

“We’re down six to nothing, and we walk into the locker room. Our head coach comes in there and he tells both of us that if we can’t get the job done, then we would be looking for another job,” Akins said. “[McNabb] turned around and looked at our head coach and said, ‘Well Coach, I can’t go out there and block for ‘em. This is all I can do. I can’t go block for em.’ Our head coach just looked at him and said, ‘You’re right.’”

The head coach turned around and walked off. Central came back and won the game in the second half.

“The way he said it.. it was just one of those ‘wow’ moments,” Akins said, smiling.

For a man who’s had a presence in Tuscaloosa nearly his whole life, McNabb has influenced a number of souls - young and old.

Art teacher Richard Nowell was one of them.

“I basically grew up knowing him,” Nowell said.

In 1983, the seventh grader didn’t know he’d be teaching with his thenscience teacher and JV football coach in 2002, but he was able to cling on to some early memories nonetheless.

“I remember some boys played a prank on him when he was the head football coach at TA,” Nowell said with a hearty chuckle. “They took all his furniture out of his office and put it in the showers. They set it up like his office was in the boys’ showers. He came into the field house and threw a fit, but it was just hysterical.”

While driving the basketball team back home from away games, McNabb would put tapes from the 70’s into the tape deck, blasting tunes from Journey and The Eagles.

“Think about this,” Nowell said to his class of ceramics students. “It’s like midnight. You can’t see anybody’s head on the bus ‘cause everybody’s laying down they’re so tired. And then ‘Hotel California’ comes on. And then - this is the chill bump part - when they get to the chorus and everything, when everybody’s going ‘Welcome to the Hotel California,’ everybody on the bus starts singing. But you can’t see anybody seeing. It’s just the voices, like ghosts. It was really cool.”

Nowell said McNabb was one of the reasons he became a teacher.

“He’s the one that, once you’ve met him and know him, you never forget what it was like,” he said.

Head coach Mike Smith met McNabb at a football social in 1986.

“Back in those days, all the coaches.. they’d go out and cook and eat and talk football. That’s how I met Don,” he said.

The two worked “off and on”

together at University of Alabama football camps until they came to Northridge in 2002.

“Don was one of those guys that was friends with every coaching staff,” Smith said. “He’d give you the shirt off his back.

He was always there for you.”

McNabb was there to see Smith’s team in its beginning stages as well as its triumphs; his play calls helped lead the team to victory in its earliest years.

“With just me and McNabb and a couple of other coaches - that’s all we had on the staff - we went from 0-9 the very first year to the playoffs,” Smith said.

Science teacher Beth Allaway met McNabb in high school, but didn’t realize it until the two taught together when the school was first built.

“He was such a good coach,” she said.

“He would scream and yell - but in a way that the kids would listen to him.”

Throughout the past fifteen years, Allaway, the school’s trusty photographer, managed to capture some of McNabb’s Kodak moments. She acted out one of her favorite photos, bringing her old friend back into character by shaking her finger at a pretend player. “‘You got to do this, you gotta do that, is everybody clear?,” she mimicked. “And they would go ‘Yeah.’ ...They just glued to him.”

Another photo, she said, showed a “kid following a running back” at last year’s County High game.

“The kid almost looked like he had his hands on the pants of the guy that was blocking him. McNabb would say, ‘Follow the guy with the big butt!’ for the blocker,” she said, laughing. “When I printed the picture, I went, ‘Oh my gosh, that is exactly McNabb.”

Allaway said McNabb, a “grandfatherly” figure to his players, was a “heck of a guy.”

“He was just so good with kids,” she said. “They all knew he really cared about them and wanted to do well. He was that, ‘You can do it. You need to listen.

You need to work harder. Life isn’t easy, but if you’re willing to work, you can accomplish anything’ kinda guy.”

Shane Ashcraft, who came to the school five years ago, might have known McNabb the least of other faculty, but he was left with a lasting impression.

“He was probably the nicest person on the football staff, the most welcoming,” he said. “He made coachin’ football (which is a really busy, time consuming job) a lot easier… I could definitely tell that he was gonna help me out whenever I needed it.”

While football was his forte, McNabb’s influence extended to every team he coached. Last year, Ashcraft took the place of the former head wrestling coach, and he said he was left with a team that didn’t let go of the work ethic previously

instilled.

“There was a certain consistency in how he treated everybody,” he said. “He always expected a lot, and he was always kind of a loud, gruff guy, but I think that everybody always knew that he really cared about the players and he was gonna do all he could for them.”

The impact McNabb had on his players showed through the wide grins on seniors Ronald McLaurin and Ke’Darrion Smith as they leaned against the facade of the field house, a place they said held countless memories of their beloved coach.

McLaurin, center, and Smith, right guard, said at the end of every winning game McNabb would scream, “I LOOOOVE FOOTBALL!” in the locker room.

“He was always energetic; he was never one of those coaches that was always mad for no reason,” McLaurin said.

McNabb, coined a “player’s coach” by Akins, offered to take home players who didn’t have rides, Ke’Darrion said.

“Do the right thing,” “learn from your mistakes,” and “never give up,” McLaurin said were words that still stick with him, words that came from a coach who cared.

Former player Josh Ward, senior, said he sat down with McNabb one day and told him he was no longer going to play football; his eyes were set on a career in the military.

“Before I left, he said, ‘You’re not playing football anymore, [but] I want to see those dog tags when you complete basic training.’ And when I came back, he passed away and he never got to see them,” Ward said. “That’s all he wanted for me was for me was to be successful.”

Current and former football players made it to McNabb’s visitation, sporting their jerseys in his honor.

“I think that was as classy as anything for them to do that,” Akins said.

Akins said football players “He hadn’t seen in 25 years” showed up as well, along with coaches from all over the state, a crowd so big it was “humbling” to Ashcraft.

“These people had enough respect for this guy to come,” Akins said. “... you know, drive 150 miles to come to a visitation and to a funeral, to remember him.”

Allen said that her dad’s funeral was a day of joy.

“We knew this great man was our loss, but Heaven’s gain, [and] he was expecting something much greater. [He will] be definitely missed, but his presence is never too far away,” Allen said.

Akins said the speech Allen gave at the service was something “he couldn’t have done.”

“How she did it I don’t know, but she just talked to him,” he said. “She talked about some good times, talked about

some times that they had gone through… [the whole funeral] showed what kind of classic character the man had.”

Akins stifled back tears as he reflected on the time he spent with McNabb the night before he passed away.

“I wish I was nearly as good a man as he was. If I could better my life after what he did, there’s no doubt I would,” he said.

“I miss him every day… I always said I wanted to finish my career coaching with him, but unfortunately I won’t be able to do that.”

Daily talks with his fellow coach was something Smith said he grew accustomed to, something he now finds himself missing.

“At times, in the normal place where we would sit and talk - I would catch myself doing this - I’d be ready to start a conversation, and he’s not there,” Smith said.

McNabb taught his players to “treat every day as if it was their last,” KeDarrion said, and McLaurin and he took that to heart.

“The sight of seeing someone you love so much,” McLaurin said, “can hurt you deeply when you see them before they go to the Man up above.”

McLaurin said there’s not just one thing he will miss about his coach.

“Everything about him is going to be missed, because from Coach, he really showed that he did care,” McLaurin said.

“He believed in you and never doubted you. He would always know that you are somebody, and that you will be somebody.”

Allen said that she and her family understands the sadness of her dad’s loss that everyone is feeling.

“We knew the love he had for the students. He always had a smile on his face, and he always had words of encouragement,” she said.

That Friday night, however, would have made the coach proud; Akins said it was a “great gesture” to remember the legacy McNabb left.

“Our student body has really rallied around what he stood for,” he said.

The color guard holds a sign that reads “#MCNABBNATION” as the football team drives the ball up the field, scoring the first touchdown of the game.

The clock winds down to 0:00. Baby powder pollutes the air. Fans scream unintelligibly, storming onto the field.

For the second time in school history, the team defeated Tuscaloosa County High School.

“Our student body is what we’re here for, and that’s why I’ve been doing this for 35 years myself,” Akins said. “To see how they reacted to him, and for him, very classy.”

19

I DESIGNED THIS

This was my first graph using Illustrator. I taught myself how to incorporate the bottles by looking up videos.

STUDENTS WEIGH IN: Do you think drinking is a part of teenage culture?

50

66 students polled 40

30

20

71% 29%

10

0

YES

20

NO

I MADE THESE

My senior year, I took a media publications class at a technical school. I used what I learned to transform the images below into a cup concealing alcohol and a bottle with some chewing tobacco spit into it, familiar images at our school.

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD It’s common knowledge that students drink, smoke, and dip on campus (especially during Friday night tailgates), and since we haven’t covered tailgating activities on any other spreads, I decided our October 2015 feature would revolve around underage activities.

When assigning stories, I expected about five articles to fill up the spread. However, several staff members had trouble making the deadline.

I used the two best stories, and since I had plenty of room, I decided to design a dominant graphic to be the focal point. To prevent sensationalizing the topic, I made sure the rest of the spread was streamlined and classy - black and white with a few pops of color. I added a simple infographic to add more of a student voice, and paired it with a Q&A I assigned a staffer to get with our principal - just to clarify what the expectations were.

DESIGN/ILLUSTRATION/INFOGRAPHICS

Tailgate culture breeds new generation of drinkers

The entertainment editor (who I co-wrote this story with) and I had a very hard time getting interviews. I was used to covering illegal activities, but this subset of students refused to speak. After days of perusing the school, we managed to get one student voice. Knowing we would need more interviews, we shifted our focus to the bystanders and the authorities. On homecoming night, instead of sitting with dates and watching the game, we searched campus for adults who would talk. We managed to get an interview with a police officer, a concession stand worker, and a mother. All was in place to trace the evolution of teenage drinking, something we found was linked to the emergence of high school tailgates - a highly underregulated part of Friday night lights.

There was a time when “rowdy” described a feverish crowd of high school football fans, riled from the thrill of the game. This was a time when police rode horses, and tailgating had its place on college quads. As high school football has evolved, however, “rowdy” has taken on a whole new meaning.

A supportive mother of majorette Abby Duncan, Amy Duncan follows every game. She watches the team’s drive against Bessemer City – taking care to note the contrast between high school football then and now.

“The student section was probably like double this size.

And it was packed, like that, every [game] day,” she said pointing to a relatively subdued student section, more occupied with homecoming chatter than the game itself.

A member of Central High School’s dance line from 19891990, she was in Abby’s place once, but she recounts an era marked by a much more lively crowd.

“People got carried… they would start at the top, they would pick somebody up, and they would like be lifted all the way down the crowd to the bottom, and then they would be lifted all the way back up through the crowd,” she said.

“And sometimes, just put off the rail, at the bottom. It was extremely – rowdy.”

That was a time when high

school tailgates were unheard of, Duncan said. Nowadays, students gather around truck beds, concealing what was not so obvious in her time: drinking.

Booster parent Carol Lee Cross has worked the concession stand for years.

Today’s “overzealous” fans, she said, spend more time behind the gates than in the stands.

Before principal Kyle Ferguson’s strong stance on discipline, she said she had witnessed kids under the influence at games.

Cross has never had to deal with them directly, though.

“The cops do that,” she said.

Standing just outside the ticket booth, Sgt. Brian Oswald of the Tuscaloosa Police Department surveys latecomers trickling through the gates.

“We don’t generally have problems at Northridge games,” he said. “...You know, there may be a little friction [during rival games] but we don’t have problems here… We don’t tolerate fighting, we don’t tolerate people gathering up and causing problems and this, that, and the other thing.”

However, Oswald realizes that covert drinking has occurred at football games for a long time.

“I know [drinking] happens, because it did when I was in school, umpteen years ago.

But usually, unless we have an interaction with [drinkers], we’re not going to know about it,” he said. “The other students

know about it, some of the teachers may get up and talk to kids who know about it… the kids are real – I haven’t noticed any this year.”

Most reported incidents of underage drinking are handled by the school, Oswald said; police only investigate pregame activities when tipped off by an outsider.

“It’s a little more serious when we deal with them,” he said. “Matter of fact, the juvenile division will bring some of their guys out here in plain clothes, a little while, just to monitor the crowds… They’re wearing plain clothes, but [students] know who they are, so, they’ll be out here watching for things just as well as we do.”

When the police take matters into their own hands, Oswald said it is usually with older drinkers. In fact, he said adults would come in so intoxicated “they could knock you down with their breath.”

While these attitudes may be new to some, a senior said that the practice of drinking during tailgates is almost “tradition,” stemming from what is learned from young adults during college tailgates and reaching all the way to children in middle school.

“Well, we grew up with [drinking] at Alabama tailgates.

I think it’s like, become a tradition to drink at a tailgate,” she said. “We do it at Alabama.

Kids did it freshman year on the Quad and all that... I guess they thought they could get away with it, you know.”

And that senior also alludes to the fact that it is common knowledge that students drink on school grounds.

“You know people sneak it in in their McDonald’s cup,” she said. “...School rules don’t really apply as much at football games. The rules feel very laid back, so it seems like there aren’t any.”

Drinking, while almost always coupled with football, has bled into teenage culture itself, the senior said. She looked back on her earlier days, a freshman that didn’t see drinking as “much of an issue.”

“I didn’t really know many people that did [drink] and if they did, then they were like the ‘labeled’ ones,” she said. “I think it’s grown a whole lot more.

There are boys that I would never expect that would drink.

There are girls the same way.”

“The new generation,” she said, has deemed drinking “the thing to do.” Brought on by peer pressure, it’s now become commonplace.

“They think it’s cool, and then it becomes a habit by the time you hit senior year,” she said.

High schoolers are also known to drink outside of school, and in that case, the senior said it is much worse than on school property. “...Sometimes when kids get drunk they get really…” her voice trailed off. “...It’s out of control. There’s no purpose in it any more. Drinking used to be a fun thing. To get buzzed. Now it’s dangerous…”

Though she acknowledges the prevalence of underage drinkers, the senior does not think that it should be made into a large issue on school grounds.

“I don’t think we should get breathalyzed going into the game. They should just be more on top of people’s activity,” she said. “I think people think that alcohol is not a big deal at school. And that people aren’t gonna be that stupid to do it.”

She concludes her thoughts with simple reasoning.

“I’m hoping [students] aren’t drinking on school property at all. What kind of idiot does that?”

NEWS GATHERING/WRITING-IN DEPTH/TEAM BUILDING

21

l

22

DESIGN/ILLLUSTRATION/WRITING-FEATURE

breaking down barriers

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD At the start of my senior year, two big stories regarding our school “breaking barriers” emerged. We had gained our first female football player and first male cheerleader in the same year.

Knowing this was newsworthy, I decided to kick off the year’s feature spreads by profiling them and their journeys to breaking gender molds.

The headlines were inspired by an Instagram post made by the female kicker Savannah Reier, entitled “Kick like a girl, cheer like a boy.”

CHEER LIKE A Balance beams and foam pits stand idly by as a four year old boy blows out the candles on his animal-themed birthday cake at Tumbling Tides, a local gym.

Thirteen years later, junior Jacob Frazier is the school’s first male cheerleader.

In elementary school, classmates identified Frazier as an animal lover and, by the looks of it, a prospective “zookeeper,” his mother Pat Curry said.

“At Verner [Elementary

I MADE THIS

School], Jacob was well-known for being able to name every animal alive,” Curry said. “ He loved animals, so it’s kinda a surprise to see him steer away from that.”

Little did she know that it was the talcum powder and the high bars that would make their way into his life again – and he would make school history because of it.

“For the life of me, I had no clue he had gotten into this

This was my first time using the 3D feature on Illustrator. I asked one of our photographers to have the subjects pose as if they were breaking through a wall, and then I incorporated the title of the spread into the overall design, adding grass and a field backdrop to add to the football theme.

23

Frazier becomes first male cheerleader cheer stuff,” Curry said with a laugh. “And when he started talking about being the first male cheerleader, I thought that was really awesome, cause I had no clue about that either.”

Frazier jumped into gymnastics around age three, and he continued going to Tumbling Tides until the third or fourth grade. Even outside of the gym, Frazier made his home a personal playground; Curry said she would find her son flipping and cartwheeling away in the front yard, “just for no given reason!” “...but then he got kinda lanky,” Curry said. “He’s always loved tumbling, but we didn’t think that would play into anything that he did because he’s got such long legs.”

Aside from his growing body, Curry said Frazier’s interest in cheering seemed to dwindle after middle school; tough adolescent years were met with busy schedules, and tumbling was put on standby.

A renewed interest in the sport was sparked in high school where Frazier mimicked cheers from the student section. “ Y- E - L - L , Y- E L-L everybody yell GO NORTHRIDGE!” he would scream as he motioned and stomped from the crowd.

Inspired by fellow teammate Lauren Williams, sophomore, Frazier said the idea of joining the squad was something that “just clicked.”

“Before, I had never thought about it, but I’d always been kind of drawn to it. ...and you know, I’ve always liked the music and the dancing,” he said with a laugh. “When I first tried practicing, I knew from the start that I enjoyed everything about it.”

All that was left was to tackle tryouts. For the boy who had not tumbled in years, a back handspring loomed in the back of his mind.

“Whenever Jacob and I were

trying out for cheer, we were both really nervous, so we went to ACE to tumble together,” Williams said. “I was there when he got his back handspring.”

Frazier, who stands a head taller than the rest of his female squad, can now land the trick with ease. Originally a feat to overcome, his height is now one of his greatest assets.

“He seems to be able to handle it now,” Curry said. “He’s slingin’ those long legs around!”

Curry said her son “stepped up” physically, and his improvement did not go unnoticed by cheer coach Erin Darnell either.

“His tumbling looks probably one-hundred percent better than when he started. He’s just using better technique, better form...”

Darnell said. “He’s worked on it day in and day out.”

After just three months of practicing, Curry said it “thrilled” her when her son announced he made the team.

“I couldn’t believe it! I couldn’t believe it!” she said. “The one thing everybody thinks about Jacob is that he’s always got a smile on his face, he has a great demeanor, and I think that helps. You need something like that when being a cheerleader.”

A skilled dancer and backspot, Frazier offers more than just strength and stature, Williams said.

“Whenever we’re at practice, we’re tired, and we don’t wanna be there sometimes, he’s always very peppy – like a cheerleader,” she said. “He brings a lot of laughter to the team.”

Darnell said his “sense of camaraderie with the girls” shines through at practice.

“He’s very spirited, very charismatic, he loves cheering, and so it’s always fun to watch him,” she said.

Curry said her son thrives off the crowd, exuding a “great confidence” that’s been cultivated in the past “year and a half.”

“It’s not as much confidence

as it is being brave and doing it,” Frazier said. “If you set your mind to something, you can definitely achieve and do better at it.”

Frazier’s achievements may very well come to fruition in the near future, Darnell said.

“As he grows with his knowledge of cheer, as he grows with his tumbling and stunt skills, he’s gonna be a better overall cheerleader, and I think he’ll be a greater leader for the squad as a senior,” she said.

Being the sole male on the team, however, can come with it’s challenges.

“He’s not supposed to do the dances, like the hip shaking kinda stuff, cause he’s the male cheerleader,” Williams said. “... but hes a really good dancer.

That’s what he likes to do, and that’s why he decided to cheer...”

At cheer camp, Frazier was “separated” from the girls, captain Elizabeth Danner said, to work on “boy motions.”

“They don’t do a lot of dances, but Jacob dances because he likes to dance,” Danner said.

Compromise seemed necessary, but after consulting with school administrators, Frazier smiled as he said he’s now able to “do everything that the girls do.”

“I think it’s just that we’re trying to incorporate [my role as a male] enough to where it’s not different at all, to where it’s just like everybody else,” Frazier said.

Frazier cheered at his first game vs Tuscaloosa County High School. Before the game, the JV cheerleader said he was apprehensive about how the audience might perceive him.

“I guess people will see it different,” he said. “It’s not a common thing, so it might not be accepted.”

Nonetheless, Frazier said he found solace on the squad, who is “very supportive.”

“It’s just like I’m the exact same,” he said.

“Breaking ground” is not

unfamiliar territory for Curry and her son, who she had on her 44th birthday.

“To have your child on your birthday, and to be that age, we’ve been kinda ground breaking from the beginning,” she said, chuckling. “He’s had more positive than negative experiences. That’s all you can want when breaking ground like that.”

Frazier said his “parents split” when he was eight years old, resulting in a tight-knit relationship with his mother, a relationship built on “a lot of love.”

“I just want him to be happy at whatever it is that he does,” Curry said. “He’s always been pretty comfortable with who he was... He’s really come into his own. And, really, I, I’m behind him one-hundred percent.”

Curry said she hopes her son can become an inspiration to others, perhaps ditching his zookeeper dreams for good and becoming a motivational speaker.

“I do hope that whatever he does, he does something where he closely interacts with other people on an emotional basis,” she said.

For the rest of the girls, Frazier teaches a valuable lesson.

Her lips curling to form a soft smile, Williams paused and said, “He taught us that anyone can do anything.”

Jacob Frazier was an old classmate of mine who I knew had been bullied in the past for his outgoing, flambouyant personality - to which his mother elaborated on in a phone interview. In this story, I wanted to show how he overcame those struggles and broke societal barriers, showing his impact on the team and his own personal triumphs.

WHO RUN THIS SPREAD? GIRLS.

IN NOVEMBER OF MY SENIOR YEAR, I LED A COLLABORATIVE EFFORT TO ADDRESS AND EDUCATE OTHERS ON A CONTROVERSIAL TOPIC AT OUR SCHOOL: FEMINISM. ALL STORIES ARE COWRITTEN

BY FEMALE STAFFERS, AND THE INTRO PAGE WAS DESIGNED BY OUR ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR. I WANTED THIS TO BE A PRODUCT OF FEMALE WORK, A SPREAD BY GIRLS AND FOR GIRLS. THIS WAS MY FIRST SPREAD THAT SPANNED OVER TWO PAGES, THE FIRST PAGE INTRODUCING THE TOPIC, THE NEXT TWO INFORMING THE AUDIENCE, AND THE THIRD PROVIDING FURTHER INSIGHT. ALL 14 INFOGRAPHICS WERE DESIGNED BY ME; THE “WARPED” FIGURE WAS CODESIGNED BY OUR INFOGRAPHICS EDITOR AND ME. AFTER IT WAS PUBLISHED, THE LINK TO OUR SPECIAL EDITION PAPER WAS RETWEETED BY KATINA PARON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OF TEEN VOICES IN NEW YORK. “CHECK OUT THIS ISSUE OF @NHSREPORTER,” SHE TWEETED. “IT’S CHOCKED FULL OF GENDER EQUALITY ARTICLES!”

speaking of infographics...

24

All information was obtained by federal bureaus, censuses, and raw statistics. I also reached out to our Girls Learn International President to request additional information. After thumbing through pages and pages of charts. I calculated the percentages myself in an effort to produce an honest representation of economic disparities.

DESIGN/ TEAM BUILDING/LEADERSHIP

Graduation Rates

% of income spent on family

In percentages

30-40%

34

36

INFOGRAPHICS

Females

90%

of the 73 cents every family woman makes to every family man

Part-Time Jobs

Hispanic Women Black Women White Women White Men

98% 105%94%

Family

Males

le

24

3 to 4

% of how much a woman makes to men of the same race

Employment

a Fem

College

16

93.2 92.7

John

Race

weekly wages Male Asian White Black Hispanic

86.6

Jennifer

High School

69.7

Hirability

110% White and Hispanic women, as well as minority men, typically earn more than white men in lower paying jobs. However, racial and gender disparities grow in higher paying jobs:

Full-Time Jobs

[

[ [ 88% 90%

81%

73%

BACHELOR’S DEGREE male earnings

female earnings

$57,000 $39,000 MASTER’S DEGREE

male earnings female earnings

$78,000 $52,000

I accounted for all of the factors that contribute to decreases in women’s salaries, including schooling, hiring discrimination and family.

[

BUSTING THE “WAGE GAP MYTH” MYTH

25

Male students, faculty push for gender equality Since the topic for the spread was so begrudgingly accepted by the majority of our male staffers, I found it necessary to share the male perspective on the issue. I collaborated with a sophomore staff member to interview five male feminists, ultimately showing that the gender gap affects everyone. This story traces the boys’ path to becoming feminists and the many reasons they support the movement today.

“Are you a feminist?” sophomore Caleb Toshcoff asked a student in the hallway.

“Oh God, no!” he exclaimed before briskly walking away.

“Are you a feminist?” we asked another student.

“Wait, does that mean I’m gay or something?” he said.

5/6

I MADE THESE

To prevent the spread from becoming too text-heavy, I broke up the written statistics (in blue) and expressed them as infographics - one set at the bottom and one set at the top marking them in the story as asterisks.

Feminism. It’s a term Toshcoff said he was first exposed to by news articles and social media.

“I support feminism,” he said. “I’m not like, an activist, or anything, but I believe in feminism.”

Unlike most of his male counterparts, Toshcoff associates the word with “equal rights” and “stopping oppression.”

“There’s a difference between equality and ‘kill all men,’” he said.

His friend Jacob Stephens, sophomore, let out a laugh.

Toshcoff was referring to the popular Twitter hashtag #killallmen, a satirical jab at online feminists which he said has left many with a sour taste for the movement.

“It’s definitely made fun of a lot online,” Stephens said.

For the two boys, this conversation hasn’t left the confines of the computer screen.

Images of women with their faces furrowed in anger while proclaiming their hatred for all men plague social media and can be seen on sites like “iFunny,” Stephens said.

The idea of the furious “feminazi” is one popularly seen, where women are portrayed to take offense at the slightest kindness and shove their opinions down others’ throats.

Left under the guise of the Internet, Junior Owen Schreiber said feminism is “just not something people talk about” at school.

It’s a phenomenon junior Will Henson has a simple explanation for.

“We live in Alabama,” he said. “Especially here, no guy

26

is gonna want to be even associated with the word feminism.”

Culturally, not much has changed in a region deeply rooted in traditional ideals.

Evident in father-son advice and just “hanging out with the guys,” Henson said male-tomale rhetoric is often masked by harmless intent.

“My dad is kind of an offender of ‘accidental” sexism,’ he said. “He’ll tell me, ‘Oh Will, never try to understand women, they’re just mysteries,’ ‘You’ll never understand women, it’s not even worth trying,’ or ‘Never get in an argument with a woman! You’ll always lose.’”

Around age twelve, Henson was introduced to feminism through the Maximum Ride series. However, it didn’t initially rub him the right way. “[The book] was terrible,” he said. “It was real preachy, and I remember really hating [feminism] as an idea and as a concept, because the main character would always talk about how men are pigs and all this stuff.”

Henson remained skeptical, alluding to the famed “feminazi” meme. In his eyes, the word only evoked anger.

“I associated it with people getting mad at people,” he said. “...and even though that never actually happened, I thought it was something that could happen, which is a little absurd and kind of a straw man argument kind of thinking.”

Coach Shane Ashcraft also held an initial aversion to the term, which later changed upon study of feminist articles and theory.

“And really, feminism is just…humanism, the belief that women should have equal rights and opportunity, and I would say that about men, women, whatever,” he said.

Attributing the negative connotation of feminism with a general misunderstanding of the term, he said that many equate the movement with female superiority as opposed to equality.

“I think most people put off by feminism have a misunderstanding and think that it means advancement of women instead of men or in spite of men, meaning a very specific set of women that are very angry or forceful, which is obviously not true,” he said.

Contrary to these common misconceptions, Ashcraft said that greater support for the movement could “alleviate some major social strains,” citing the gender wage gap as a notable example of cultural tensions.

“We can’t expect people to get along if women are getting paid pennies on the dollar, or when you’re able to get a job because of your gender, your sex, whatever,” he said. “I mean, I wouldn’t be happy if I had an unfair disadvantage based on something I couldn’t control.”

Admittedly, Ashcraft said these social constructs have given him a leg up in the workplace; as male English teachers are a rare find, his gender has actually helped him land a job.

Through coaching football, wrestling and soccer, Ashcraft has seen gender inequality extend from the classroom to the field, noting an overwhelming shortage of women referees and coaches.

To bridge this gap, he said schools should “give equal opportunities to students and employees.”

“We shouldn’t assign jobs to certain employees based on gender. We shouldn’t make certain jobs specific within the school or within the students based on gender, and I think that would trickle down,” he said.

Henson, who has become more “acclimated to the idea” of feminism over the years, came to a similar realization. Gender equality, he said, ensures equal opportunity, and from that, both sexes can live out “the American dream.”

“The American dream is for everybody to be able to make a name for themselves or to make a career out of something they

love,” he said. “And I just want to make sure that women aren’t discouraged from a lot of fields of study.” “...like the STEM fields,” he said, citing a “disproportionately low” amount of women taking science, technology, engineering or math-related career paths.

Gender equality would push more women into these fields, which Henson said would advance society as a whole.

“It could bring so many great new ideas and thoughts, fresh new minds - it could just be a really great benefit I think,” he said.

Increasing awareness of these issues, Henson said, would pave the way for progress.

“So many people try to deny that these are problems that are happening in our country and all over the world,” he said.

Although many online jokes surrounding feminism poke fun at a perceived tendency to take offense at the most trivial slight, women in the U.S. and around the globe face many tangible issues, including the aforementioned wage gap. Inadequate maternal care, under-representation in governmental bodies, human trafficking, objectification, discrimination within fields of academia, and violence against women are all issues at the forefront of the battle to end gender inequality.

The United States House of Representatives is only comprised of 19.3% women; in the U.S. Senate, this number rises only to 20% in a country where women comprise over 50% of the population. In the business world, women are only 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs. The treatment of women within entertainment and the media still leaves much to accomplish, with looming imbalances in representation and pay between men and women. Actress Jennifer Lawrence recently published an essay examining the gap between her earnings and those of her male co-stars, once more igniting a conversation on gender inequality in Hollywood.

On the subject of the silver screen, statistics of Academy Award winners still leave

INFOGRAPHICS/TEAM BUILDING/WRITING-IN DEPTH

Best Director Winners in the Academy’s 88 year history, only one, Kathryn Bigelow, has been female.

Campaigns such as Always’ #LikeAGirl have emerged seeking to combat negative stereotypes surrounding young women and the effect they have on teenage girls.

While he acknowledges that these issues are all too real, Ashcraft remains doubtful that complete equality can be achieved, as “people have their own prejudices.”

He does wish, however, that people would open their eyes to feminism and “have an understanding of the word.”

“In the words of Dr. Espy,” he said, “‘Try and stamp out a little bit of ignorance every day.’”

Sophomore Jer’Howard Paige sees feminism as “a chance for equality,” unlike his peers, who he says view supporting the movement as a betrayal of one’s own gender.

Paige expressed his dismay upon learning of the rigid roles women were forced to adhere to throughout much of history.

“Women went through this more like way back in the 1700’s,” he said. “We just got off this subject in history. I saw that y’all couldn’t vote, y’all had to stay at home and take care of your husband and kids and all that stuff. And I’m just like well why couldn’t they go and fight in the wars just like men did, why couldn’t they do as much as the men could do?”

For daring to act in the same way as men, Paige learned, women in the past would often face violent consequences.

“Even though the pledge says ‘justice for all,’ there is no justice,” Paige said, expressing his own frustration and disillusionment. “...people will never give [women] the credit where it’s due.”

Feminism for him is a personal story, dating back to when his mother was a high schooler herself with dreams of playing football.

“In my hometown, Marion, my mom told me this story about how she wanted to play football when she was in high school,” he said, “and so they wouldn’t let her on the team because she was a girl, which really made me think, ‘Can’t girls play football too?’ And she was just telling me how it hurt her because she wanted to do that so bad. And I was like, ‘Well maybe it wasn’t meant for you at that time.’”

For Paige, seeing gender barriers being broken down at

his own school is an enormous step forward. “...now I see that there’s a football player at Northridge that’s a girl, and I’m kinda happy because now a female can do whatever a man can do. Now, you see a boy on the cheerleading squad and he can do whatever girls can do. It doesn’t matter at all,” he said.

Although Paige’s mother faced her own gender obstacles in participating in football, she is hesitant to allow her son to enter cheerleading, a traditionally feminine sport.

“I wanna be a cheerleader next year,” he said. “But my mom wouldn’t allow that because she sees it as a ‘girl’s sport.’ And my dad wouldn’t allow that because he sees it as a ‘girl’s sport.’ And how I feel, I should be able to do what I want to do because that doesn’t matter at all; as long as I’m achieving what I want to do in my life, I should be able to do whatever.”

Paige firmly maintained that a person’s dreams and goals are what matters in respect to individual accomplishments, something that gender plays no determining role in.

“I just wanna say, like, sex doesn’t mean anything. Like you can do anything you want to, and nobody should hold you back from that. Whether you want to be able to fight in wars, if you want to go somewhere where men can only go, or go somewhere where women can only go, it doesn’t matter at all.

You should be able to go where ever you want to because that’s your goal.”

While he has his own personal feats to overcome, Paige said he has bigger goals for the movement itself, including “peace” and “cooperation.”

“We need to be saying, ‘You can do this, you can do that,’ instead of just saying, ‘You can’t do this, you can’t do that,’” he said.

“Because you can do this. You can do this together. It’ll work.”

“Do you identify as a feminist?”

“Yes I do,” Paige said.

“Do you identify as a feminist?”

“Yeah,” Ashcraft said.

“Do you identify as a feminist?”

“Yes,” Henson said.

MAN’S DOLLAR BE BORN WITH TWO X CHROMOSOMES

...when you have the same academics, work experience and qualifications

HAVE A CAUCASIAN SOUNDING NAME

DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT HAVING KIDS

DON’T HAVE CHILDREN

DON’T GET MARRIED

NEVER TURN 44

REMAIN SINGLE

Girls faced with unattainable standards of ‘beauty’ Fun Fact: It took my infographics editor about an hour to find a stock photo of a woman who wasn’t sexualized or conventionally skinny.

“They called me a pancake and a pencil.”

“Girls aren’t supposed to be so muscular.”

BUT “You look anorexic.”

BUT

“Cheerleaders at my old school used to call me fat.”

“You just need to lose weight.”

“You have too many curves.”

BUT

“You’re too short.”

BUT “You’re too tall.”

These quotes are from real students

Schreiber was hesitant to call himself a feminist, a term he was first introduced to at a church camp he attended one summer.

“They talked a lot about civil liberties and progressiveness, and what it means to be a human,” he said.

Both Henson and Schreiber were open to the idea of altering the name ‘feminism’ to ‘egalitarianism,’ a sentiment shared by those who say that the original term comes on far too strongly.

“People just put so much negative connotation on a single word. You could present the same ideas, the same points, and as long as you kept it under a different name, it would have a totally different effect, I think,” Henson said.

Proponents of the term also argue that feminism is too onesided and that focusing only on the gender issues of women will do nothing to bring about equality between men and women.

Egalitarianism, Scheiber said, is a more broad term describing a movement that is “not just for women, and not just for men.”

In fact, gender-specific issues harm both men and women alike. The Guardian recently reported that about 40% of all domestic abuse victims in the United Kingdom are male; male victims, at the same time, are often glossed over in ad

campaigns and in public opinion pertaining to abuse. Men also have a statistical disadvantage in child-custody cases; in 2008, Newsweek reported that 5 out of 6 times, women win solecustody battles.

In recent years, the shocking gender gap found in homelessness has also raised the question of whether or not it is a predominantly male issue: the U.S. Interagency Council roughly estimates that of the chronically homeless, about 70% are male.

I DESIGNED THIS

room for improvement; of the

This is based off of prior research on the gender wage gap, showing that even in situaions where men and women share the same circumstances, women are still underpaid.

JOINING THE CAUSE cont.

THE PATH TO EARNING 97 CENTS OF A

“Guys only like me for my boobs and my butt.”

Aside from economic disparities, the female staff wanted to touch on a more social, personal aspect of gender inequality: objectification and feelings of inadequacy based on outward appearance. I collaborated with the infographics editor to show how ridiculous the “average woman” would look if she were expected to uphold Information compiled by Avery Hester and Mayci Hartley contradicting societal standards.

Infographic designed by Rebecca Griesbach and Sumona Gupta

27

What it’s like to be alone, in the dark and a girl

A last minute addition to the spread, this page was inspired by a Girls Learn International meeting I attended just days before deadline. The club aims to promote girls’ education around the world and touches on a variety of topics regarding gender inequality. Spurred off of a discussion surrounding an opposing football player’s rape investigation, we started to converse about the fear that women face on a daily basis. The three males in the room were shocked as we recounted being catcalled, constantly looking over our shoulders and arming ourselves with pepper spray, realizing just how much they take for granted. One of the male staffers was at this meeting, and he said to me, “Rebecca, we have to do something about this with the newspaper.” I agreed, although deadline was steadily approaching, and proceeded to cowrite and design the page in just three days. The article touched on real instances in which female students and faculty have had to alter their lives to accomodate for the threats posed to women who just want to go about their business.

ME

THE LOOMING SHADOW INFOGRAPHICS EDITOR

THE RUNNER

I DESIGNED THIS I wanted to end the spread by showing the darker side of gender inequality, something that all women face and that is often disregarded by men. At about 11 p.m. on a Friday night, our photographer, entertainment editor and I worked to stage a photo in which I was the ambiguous shadow and my cowriter was the girl running. The camera was unable to get a good focus, so the photo had to be taken with an iPhone. To improve quality, I darkened the shadow in Photoshop, cut out the runner, adjusted the saturation of her shoes, desaturated the rest of the photo, and placed it back onto the image. I then duplicated the street, adding perspective to make it stretch to the back of the page, and framed it with a lone lamppost.

Trina Busby, English teacher, did not approve of the joking signs some of her senior students were making, referring to their rivals’ (Spanish Fort High School) player being charged with first-degree rape. “No means no,” the posters said, making light of a slogan meant to reveal the darkness behind a highly personal crime.

“You cannot make posters [saying that] and hold them up at the football game,” she said. “It’s just… In poor taste. Don’t do it... It’s like re-victimizing the victim,” Busby said.

The fear that women face on a day-today basis is not trivial. It’s not imaginary

28

or contrived.

In a former issue of The Northridge Reporter, the female staff was invited to partake in a self defense class following an article on an assault of a teenage girl at Munny Sokol Park.

It was there that instructor Michael Holt revealed a gruesome story of a high school softball player, a story of a simple stop at a gas station that went terribly awry.

Two years later - and for the foreseeable future - the issue still persists, as female students and faculty approach daily tasks, empty parking lots and nightly runs with a heightened sense of caution.

Terry Milsaps, junior, runs in Sokol Park regularly. Her father, a former police officer, warns her to always carry pepper spray with her for protection. “[My dad] saw way more [in Tuscaloosa] than you would think, like rape cases and stuff,” she said.

Although Tuscaloosa could be considered a relatively safe town, Milsaps said she does not feel comfortable walking down the Strip, a popular street on campus, at night.

And it’s not just her, she said, recounting a time when she was walking behind two girls, “their keys clutched in between their fingers,” with their father on the phone for the duration of the walk back to their car.

While she takes care to avoid alleyways and shortcuts through neighborhoods, Milsaps noted that boys her age don’t have to feel the same.

“It’s okay for guys to do it though, because they don’t have any real threats to worry about,” she said.

Young men may be oblivious to the everyday anxieties of their female counterparts, but somewhere along the way, they learn to caution their daughters of the risks of staying out alone.

Megan Liljenquist, science teacher, grew up being warned about the dangers that surround women of all ages.

“My parents were always like, ‘You can’t do that, you’re a girl...’ and you know, ‘You have to be cautious because guys can overpower you,’” she said.

This sentiment was carried over by her husband, who feels the need to keep his wife safe on her nightly runs, cautioning her to carry pepper spray or bring their dog along for protection.

“My husband wouldn’t do that for himself,” she said. “If he was gonna go for a run, he’d typically just be like, ‘Oh I’m just gonna go’ and didn’t take pepper spray, didn’t take anything like that.”

Burdened by the reality of being a woman alone in the dark, Liljenquist does not have the luxury of exercising when she wants to.

“I’m too scared to venture out…” she said. “...It just kinda creeps me out.”

Like Liljenquist, Milsaps has cause to be afraid.

Walking along the streets of Asheville, North Carolina with twenty of her fellow camp counselors, Milsaps recalled “the creepiest thing anyone has ever said to [her].”

“One man literally called us a buffet,” she said. “He was like, ‘Oh I can pick whatever I want!’”

Similar comments have kept senior Kathryn Versace from feeling safe, even while running daily errands.

“What’s for dinner?” a man snidely asked her while peeking into her grocery basket.

While some may dismiss comments like these, shrugging them off as harmless, they make women more wary of their environment, prompting them to avoid more unwanted attention.

“If I’m walking down the street, I always cling to one side of the sidewalk,” Versace said. “I don’t really want to interact or like bump into someone.”

After two of her female neighbors were followed home by a “sketchy van,” junior Liza Thornell said she, too, is forced to take precautions when alone in public.

“If I can’t park by the door, I just don’t go,” she said. “The movie theatre?

Nuh uh.”

Thornell said she typically relies on her friends to join her in nightly errands, a notion seconded by senior Ragan Ferguson.

“Whenever I get off work late at night, I either get somebody to walk out with me or, like, I check underneath my car cause I’m always scared that somebody’s gonna be hiding,” Ferguson said.

The precautions these girls take are not merely habit, they’ve become second nature.

Even more so for junior Lakesha Dailey, who spent her childhood learning to grow up fast.

“I used to live in the projects,” she said. “Yeah, I was scared.”

At ten years old, a young Dailey hurriedly walked her Birmingham streets from cheer practice to home, evening after evening.

“If I didn’t have my cousins with me, I used to just walk fast and hurry up and get my stuff. And,” she sighed, “I’d walk home... safely.”

She would then call her mother, who worked late and insisted on hearing of a safe return. “[Now], I don’t really think about being scared or anything, it’s just there,” Dailey said after she rattled off what has so quickly become common knowledge to her: “Make sure you’re not walking home in a little tank top, or leggings, or something like that.

“Make sure you’re looking out for who’s behind you.

“Make sure that you’re walking fast, like you’re not lollygagging.

“Make sure you see who’s riding up beside you in the road, that you don’t see the same car twice because more than likely they’re circling you, looking at you.

“Make sure you walk fast if you see a car cruisin’ by.”

For women, they don’t just to have to “make sure” they follow these unwritten guidelines, they simply must.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION/TEAM BUILDING/WRITING-FEATURE

After writing the story below, I maintined ORGANIZED THIS EVENT correspondence with the prime interviewee Michael Holt, who invitd my staff to a free self-defense class at his studio. I then wrote a narrative on the event. Little did I know that two years later, I would be reporting on a much similar topic as Feature Editor.

THIS IS ME

Attack urges students to consider self-defense The school was abuzz with talk on Monday, Feb. 10, of an attack on a 17 year old female jogger that occurred in Sokol Park the previous day.

Emma Jackson, senior, said she was leaving her house to go for a run at Sokol Park right before the attack.

“I was in my driveway, about to leave, when I got a group message from the soccer team saying ‘don’t go’ because ‘someone got attacked,’” Jackson said.

The news, while alarming to students and faculty, also reached Michael Holt, owner and chief instructor at Tiger Rock Martial Arts in Northport. “[My coworkers and I] are very concerned when people in our community are affected by assaults and other attacks,” Holt said.

Holt said he believes better education on the topic of self-defense would help prevent attacks.

“The fault is always on the attacker. No one should ever be a victim,” Holt said. “The question is: Are there things that can be done to reduce the chance to someone being a victim? That answer is yes. If someone doesn’t take those steps, it doesn’t mean that they are to blame for the assault. The attacker is always to blame for the assault.”

Don McNabb, health teacher, said he believes self-defense is an important skill to learn (especially for high-schoolers, who he said were more at-risk than any other age group).

“Teenagers are absolutely more vulnerable because they are not as wary,” McNabb said.

“Generally speaking, they have a tendency to trust everybody.”

McNabb’s curriculum does not specifically cover self-defense or protection techniques; instead, he said it educates students on “anger issues” and mental health, which also can relate to the problem at hand.

“I’m not sure public school is where [students] should learn [self-defense],” McNabb said. “If

someone feels the need to protect themselves, there are plenty of places [to learn] around town.”

Junior Kayla Lawson attends Taekwondo lessons at her dad’s studio, Strictly Business.

Lawson said that although her dad, Harry Lawson, influenced her to take lessons, she has her own reasons for learning Taekwondo.

“If I want to survive in life, I have to keep doing this,” Lawson said.

Jackson said she thinks self-defense is extremely important, “especially for girls.”

“My dad won’t let me run alone anymore,” Jackson said. “But I do have pepper spray for protection.”

Holt said survival is a key reason several women seek out his expertise in self-defense.

“We receive phone calls from women after attacks are made public such as the recent Sokol Park incident, but we also are contacted by women who are unfortunately going through a tough divorce, or possibly are in an abusive relationship,” Holt said.

Holt said making simple precautions can change a woman’s image of being an “easy target.”

“Don’t look like a victim.” Holt said.

“Always be aware of the surroundings. Don’t be in a secluded place alone. Walk with [your] head up....not looking down at phone, etc.).”

There is nothing that should keep a person from becoming involved in a self-defense class. Holt teaches men and women of all ages, and said you do not have to be physically fit to protect yourself.

“In our personal protection classes for women, it is about keeping it simple. Basic everyday movements such as turning a key, clapping our hands and knocking on a door are used and translated into self-defense moves,” Holt said.

“

I

FLASHING BACK

“

In a former issue of The Northridge Reporter, the female staff was invited to partake in a self defense class following an article on an assault of a teenage girl at Munny Sokol Park.

It was there that instructor Michael Holt revealed a gruesome story of a high school softball player, a story of a simple stop at a gas station that went terribly awry.

Female staff takes class at Tiger Rock Michael Holt, chief instructor at Tiger Rock Martial Arts in Northport, invited the girls of the newspaper staff to partake in a free Personal Protection Class for women at the studio on Monday, Mar. 10.

Adviser Susan Newell, assistant copy editor Sophie Fairbairn, her older sister, Douglass Fairbairn and I attended the class that night.

For the first portion of the class, Holt invited us into his office for an informational crash-course on self-defense. He surprised me with his extensive knowledge of the subject.

Holt said the incidents like the one at Sokol Park are “rare” because, most of the time, attacks happen in familiar settings between people with familiar faces.

“Ninety-seven percent of attackers are ‘bad guests,’” Holt said. “Bad guests are people that you let into your life. The other three percent of attacks are caused by either ‘bad guys’ who live in a life that means nothing to them, or you are in a store that gets robbed.”

Holt shared several simple techniques with us that can prevent attacks from happening or can help get you out of a bad situation if you are already in one.

The first tip he gave us was to “scan our surroundings.”

“When most people walk into public places,” Holt said to us, “they don’t know where the exits are.”

Holt said awareness is empowerment; simply being aware of our environment gives us a better chance of survival.

Following a disturbing testimony that left our mouths wide open, Holt said to never leave your car unlocked. It’s a simple tip that seems like common sense, but it’s one that can save your life. Check to make sure there is no one inside the car before you get in, and lock the doors as soon as the coast is clear.

After the introduction, we were led into an open space to practice physical self-defense techniques.

First, we practiced the “clap” technique. If someone has a firm grasp on your wrist, all you have to do is clap your hands together and pull away. Another variation of this includes pulling up. In this instance, the attacker would have a two-hand grip on one of your wrists.

Next, we assessed what would happen if the attacker tried to grab a hold of our hair. To get out of this, you hold the attacker’s hand to your head and scurry back, getting close to the ground.

This hurts the attacker’s wrist to the point of causing him or her to let go.

And finally, we learned the magic of the “horse bite,” Sophie’s and my personal favorite.

It is a simple pinch-and-pull technique that can move a grown man across a room if done right. If the other techniques are not an option, chances are the attacker is exposing a vulnerable part of his body, such as his or her inner thighs or arms.

This is where the horse bite comes in: pinch the skin, pull it away, and twist clockwise back into the area. This causes a reflex that will make the attacker easy to control.

I am forever grateful for what I learned Monday night, and I encourage everybody to take a class like the one at Tiger Rock. Hearing the stories Holt told about situations that happened to people close to him changed my perspective.

Anyone can be a victim of an attack, whether it is a high school softball player or a middle-aged mother. But, thanks to Holt, I’m prepared to handle a situation should it happen to me.

I can say that I am more alert than I was before, and I know now to be wary of the people I let into my life. I always double-check to make sure I have locked my car, and I scan the insides thoroughly before getting in. Although I have incorporated the tips Holt gave us into my everyday life, I hope I never have to use a horse bite on anyone.

I DESIGNED THIS PAGE as a sophomore

DESIGN/LEADERSHIP/WRITING-NEWS/NARRATIVE

29

THE 30

ACTIVISM/LEADERSHIP/TEAM BUILDING/ENTREPRENEURSHIP

AN ONGOING EFFORT SINCE OCTOBER OF 2013, THE EXCHANGE WAS AND REMAINS TO BE THE ADVENTURE OF A LIFETIME. OUR STORY DATES BACK TO MY FIRST YEAR IN JOURNALISM, WHEN OUR STAFF WAS APPROACHED BY THEN-PROPUBLICA REPORTERS NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES AND AMANDA ZAMORA. HANNAH-JONES, WHO COVERS RACE RELATIONS AROUND THE COUNTRY, ENLISTED OUR HELP IN CAPTURING THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE IN TUSCALOOSA’S MOST SEGREGATED AND INTEGRATED SCHOOLS: CENTRAL AND NORTHRIDGE HIGH SCHOOL,RESPECTIVELY. THAT WAS MY FIRST FORMAL INTRODUCTION TO PHOTOJOURNALISM, BUT IT SHOWED ME SO MUCH MORE THAN THE RULE OF THIRDS, FRAMING AND FOCAL POINTS. IT SHOWED ME HOW MIXING JOURNALISTIC MEDIUMS CAN RAISE THE VOLUME IN A COMMUNITY HUSHED BY A LONG HISTORY OF RACIAL TENSIONS. WHAT BEGAN AS A SIMPLE TASK EVOLVED INTO A DEEP RECONCILIATION WITH MY OWN EXPERIENCE WITH RACE, A CHANCE TO SPEAK UP ABOUT THAT EXPERIENCE, AND THEN A CHANCE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. THE NEXT FEW PAGES WILL MAP A JOURNEY OF ADVERSITY AND TRIUMPH AS I AND A CREW OF STUDENTS AROUND TUSCALOOSA ATTEMPTED TO DESEGREGATE OUR RESEGREGATED SCHOOL DISTRICT, BREAKING DOWN RACIAL BARRIERS, RIVALRIES AND STIGMAS WHILE JUMPING HURDLES OF OUR OWN.

31

1954- BROWN VS. BOARD OF EDUCATION CALLED FOR DESEGREGATION OF SCHOOLS

“

“

A BRIEF HISTORY

To me, this project means looking forward.

While we don’t have the powerhouse that Central used to be, I think we can create the same atmosphere by opening up to each other and becoming a support system...

JUNE 11, 1963- STAND IN THE SCHOOLHOUSE DOOR “SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER,” -GOV. GEORGE WALLACE LATE 70’S- DRUID HIGH AND TUSCALOOSA HIGH COMBINED INTO CENTRAL HIGH 1999- FEDERAL COURTED LIFTED DESEGREGATION ORDER; CENTRAL SPLIT UP INTO 3 “NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS”

WE WERE TASKED WITH CAPTURING RACIAL INTERACTIONS THROUGH THE LENS OF A POINT AND SHOOT CAMERA. AFTER A FEW DEADLINES, PHOTOS WERE CHOSEN TO HELP ILLUSTRATE THE AWARD WINNING ARTICLE, “SEGREGATION NOW’ FEATURED IN THE ATLANTIC MAGAZINE. THESE ARE MY PHOTOS, WHICH CAN BE SEEN ON NPR’S PHOTOGRAPHY BLOG AND PROPUBLICA.ORG. SCAN THE QR CODES TO SEE MY PHOTOS AND CAPTIONS.

GRANDCHILDREN OF BROWN

After the photos were selected from separate schools, the photographers from Northridge and Central broke the ice with each other in an interviewing activity one Saturday morning. We became friends quickly, conversing over pizza in Central High School’s courtyard, where the students were quick to inform me that I was “probably the third white person to ever eat there.” It was then that I truly realized how different our schools really were.

2013

32

AFTER A SERIES OF GOOGLE HANGOUTS WITH PROPUBLICA

I TOOK THESE PHOTOS

THE EXHIBIT

We then proceeded to write captions for our photos and record our six words for Michelle Norris’ Race Card Project. Propublica teamed up with NPR to add our personal experiences with racial relations to the project.

About a month later, the recordings were featured on NPR’s morning edition (scan the code). My words, “My own race thinks I’m contaminated” stemmed from an observation of my white classmates’ aversion to interracial relationships in an integrated environment and the hurtful things said to those who think otherwise.

The photos were then displayed at an exhibit at the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center in downtown Tuscaloosa. I was one of five students chosen to serve on a panel moderated by NPR’s Gene Demby.

We shared what we learned from taking the photos as well as the reasons behind our six words. It was obvious, though, that there was much progress to be made in our schools and our community.

It was then that our sports editor, Camri Mason, leaned over to me and said, “ You know what we should do? We should all swap schools for a week.” The plan, we all agreed, was brilliant. We approached our superintendent Dr. Paul McKendrick, proposing her plan to create the city’s first student-led intracity exchange program, and he agreed to start the planning process the next year. It was an eventful night, to say the least, but by the end of the exhibit, it was clear that this would not be the end of our collaborative efforts with the students from Central High School.

FEB 25 OCTOBER

2014

MAY 2

PHOTOJOURNALISM/NATIONAL MEDIA/SPEAKING/NEWS LITERACY

2014 NSPA CONVENTION,

WASHINGTON, D.C. TUSCALOOSA

PICTURES SAY 1000 WORDS ABOUT RESEGREGATION I led a workshop on photojournalism at the convention, speaking about the events leading up to our expected exchange. I was given the opportunity to inspire students around the nation to take on investigative endeavers of their own.

WHILE THERE, I RECIEVED A SUPERIOR RATING IN THE ON-SITE NEWS WRITING COMPETITION; MY ENTRY TOLD THE STORY OF A GAY MAN’S STRUGGLE TO GAIN ADOPTION AND CUSTODY RIGHTS FOR HIS PARTNER. COINCIDENTALLY, I WAS TELLING THE STORY OF A MAN TRYING TO BREAK DOWN BARRIERS WHILE BREAKING MY OWN - AS ONE OF THE YOUNGEST SPEAKERS AT THE CONVENTION.

AUGUST

THEN...

MEETING AFTER MEETING AFTER MEETING AFTER PROMOTIONAL VIDEO AFTER MEETING AFTER SCHEDULING CONFLICT AFTER BRAINSTORMING SESSION AFTER ANOTHER CROWDED IMPROMPTU MEETING. REPEAT. FAILURE. REPEAT. FAILURE. REPEAT. FAILURE. REPEAT. SUCCESS.

SEPTEMBER: Exchange

students present their Propublica experience at 2014 ASPA Fall Workshop.

FALL-APR

NOV 6-9

See my personal reflections on p 37.

In the ASPA Fall Workshop of my senior year, the exchangees and I arranged another presentation, this time speaking about the obstacles we overcame. I stepped out after the presentation was over to speak with a group of students who had plans of doing something similar in their district, establishing connections and giving them further insight.

WINTER

2015

WORKSHOP #3

This was our first board meeting, where we presented our plan in front of the superintendent and his committee.

“It’s Not So Black and White,” a culmination of our experiences reporting at Bryant and Central, was published on May 11. I distributed 1500 copies throughout the school system. This photo is of our Editor-in-Chief and I sharing our work with UA Journalism professor Dr. George Daniels.

WHAT NEXT?

FEB: WE ADDRESS THE SCHOOL BOARD AGAIN, FIGHTING TO BRING THE EXCHANGE BACK. WE GAIN THE SUPPORT OF BOARD MEMBER EARNESTINE TUCKER.

DAY TWO

LOOKING UP

CENTRAL

“EARLY SPRING”: STILL NO COMMUNICATION FROM THE SCHOOL BOARD

Before our scheduled exchange, the group and I attended panels and progams at the University of Alabama to build momentum and gain inspiration. To the left is us posing with Nikole Hannah Jones and Earnestine Tucker, and to the right is us with diversity expert Dr. Damon Williams.

DAY ONE

NOV: BRYANT HIGH SCHOOL GETS THROWN INTO THE MIX, EXCHANGE SCHEDULED TO OCCUR, CENTRAL OFFICE FAILED TO ORGANIZE SCHEDULES AND TRANSPORTATION, CALLED OFF UNTIL “EARLY SPRING”

BRYANT

OCT: EXCHANGE SCHEDULED TO OCCUR, POSTPONED FOR LOGISTICAL REASONS

THE PLANNING PROCESS

ROADBLOCKS

MAY APR 6-7

SEPTEMBER

ENTREPRENEURSHIP/IN-DEPTH NEWS GATHERING

2016

33

Inside the classes and culture of Central High School

LIFE OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE: HOW A DAY AT CENTRAL OPENED MY EYES TO THE EVERYDAY STRUGGLES OF THE OVERLOOKED AND UNDERPRIVILEGED Because it provided a such a stark difference in the curriculum I was used to, I knew I wanted to tackle Central’s IB Program from the get-go. I also knew, however, that I only had one day to gather interviews for what would turn out to be a fairly in-depth analysis of not only the program, but the culture surrounding it. I was used to taking on large stories, but never in such a short amount of time or in an environment that I knew very little about.

So I planned, and at the beginning of every class, I would scope out potential interviewees, asking the students for reliable sources along with their own views and dialogue on the program. My more formal interviews started with the principal, and then he led me to the valedictorian. It was there that everything started to fall into place.

A daughter of Central High School’s counselor Erskine Simmons (who I later observed as she addressed a class), Kristian Simmons exposed to me a common theme that presided throughout the program: motivation. For her and most of her IB classmates, she was lucky to have parents who pushed her, but for the vast majority of Central’s students, that privilege just didn’t exist.

Taking this into account, I asked her, “So do you know any students that are in the program that don’t have that external motivation from their parents?” She led me to her best friend Zamarian Kelly.

We were sitting in the hallway outside of a community service class I had finished observing. Kelly was telling me about her dad leaving her and her mother. Without the privilege of having a stable home life, I asked her how she maintains such a high motivation to stay in and succeed in higher level classes.

Moving away from this town and starting fresh were factors that Kelly said motivated her to do well academically.

With such a small portion of Central’s population involved in the IB program, I knew there had to be students with untapped potential. One of them, I would come to find out, happened to be one of Kelly’s close friends, Jaylon Robertson.

I’ll never forget the moment he walked into the conference room. He looked at me, puzzled, as I explained I was just going to ask him a few questions about his friendship with Kelly and his own experience in segregated schools. Then he looked relieved, stating that he thought he was “in trouble.”

Robertson, pictured below, wasn’t a “bad kid” at all, but he said he was often perceived as one because of the path he chose to take in school. He was a very bright kid, especially when he was younger, but life hit him hard in his adolescence causing him to take on other priorities.

There was a point in the interview where I cut off the recorder, and I just let him talk freely to me about his plans for the future. He had several trades he wanted to pursue, like fixing cars and cutting hair. He thought about joining the army, too. Anything but academics, he told me. I asked him why he had become so disillusioned with the education system, and his answers were telling: He was tired of not being listened to. Education, for him, was not “one size fits all.” He wished society would realize that students like him were different and that they “didn’t view life the way [others] do.”

Often stigmatized as a “bad school,” I wanted to show the system that there’s far more that goes on in a Central student’s life than homework and grades. By introducing the readers to this group of students, my goal was to open their eyes a little bit - these kids aren’t bad, and they aren’t lazy. They just don’t have what others often take for granted.

34

Releasing their grip from their pencils after jotting down notes from a unit on memory in their International Baccalaureate (IB) Psychology class, Central students sat back in their chairs, all eyes and ears on their teacher Dr. Russell Hammack.

“If you just know basic factual information, then that’s all you’re gonna regurgitate, right?” he said to them. “You can’t really make an analysis if all you knowis the Civil War started in 1861 and ended in 1865.”

The lecture on memory began to bleed into the philosophy of the IB program.

“It’s a lot different to be able to analyze, ‘Whay were the problems of the Civil War? What were some of the reasons why the war happened? How did it affect the American slavery system?’” Hammack said.

This form of assessment is what IB students spend hours of their class time preparing for. The program’s emphasis on the depth - as opposed to the breadth of learning provides for a challenging curriculum and rigorous workload, obstacles IB students overcome daily.

Folder and pen in hand, glasses perched atop the bridge of her nose, counselor Erskine Simmons walked into a classroom of IB students with a purpose: to address the participation levels in programs the school set in place to prepare them for life “beyond Central High School.”

“There’s somethin’ called L-I-F-E once you exit these doors of Central High School. In order to prosper you have to have a better attitude, a better demeanor about yourself,” Simmons said. “You be that light.”

Marking its fifth year under principal Dr. Clarence Sutton’s administration, the school has implemented semester group projects, community service opportunities through a partnership with the Tuscaloosa Spay and Neutering Program, Dual Enrollment classes at Shelton State Community College, ACT study sessions and a Peer Connect program in which IB and AP students connect with lower level classes. These programs not only enrich their curriculums but also facilitate the services of IB and AP (Advanced Placement) students to their surrounding environment in order to create what Sutton said he wants to be a “school of excellence.”

“It’s just... exciting. This culture changed, the perception on the outside has changed,” Sutton said. “My goal is to be the first true early college campus in west Alabama, where all my juniors and seniors are taking college courses, where they’re working in their field.”

A graduate of Central High School’s class of 1980, Sutton said he returned to his alma mater because he “wanted a challenge.” Sutton said the integration order allowed him to form long-lasting relationships with classmates from different sides of town, including Mayor

Walt Maddox.

“That is one thing that you all are missing,” Sutton said. “That we had the opportunity to meet someone from another community, another way, train of thought.”

Exposure of the school’s demographics, Sutton said, “opened up conversation that a lot of people were scared to have.”

“We needed to have it because we’ve got to do what’s best for every child in our community,” he said.

Junior IB student Lauren Hill, who attended University Place Elementary School, Holy Sprit Catholic School and Tuscaloosa Magnet Middle School, said coming to Central gave her a “culture shock.”

“Holy Spirit was like completely white... and the magnet school had like, everybody,” Hill said. “... there’s no diversity here whatsoever.”

The lack of racial diversity, however, is only one aspect of the school’s social structure, Hill said.

“There is [diversity] in the way people act,” she said. “You have the popular people, the jocks and the nerds just like any other school.”

While the rest of the school’s population follows individual schedules, Hill said the students in the IB program are set aside their own hallway and have followed the same schedule with the same peer group “since 9th grade.”

“It’s kinda like they separate us from the rest of the students,” she said. “Once you get in IB, this is your family.”

“IB is life,” Hill said.

“You eat IB, you drink IB and you sleep IB. You THINK IB,” junior Taniquewa Monroe said.

“You cry IB!” Hill said. “And then when you turn in those reports, you praise Jesus!”

Senior Zamarian Kelly said the physical and social divide between IB students and their schoolmates fosters some misconceptions about the program.

“I have people come up to me like, ‘IB think they better than everybody. IB is put on a higher pedestal. Everybody always wanna do stuff for IB,’” she said.

Kelly said her schoolmates fail to recognize what sets her apart from her peers: a drive to take advantage of the resources she is given. “...if you look at the grand scheme of things, you have to see that the IB students are the ones that actually go to look for help,” she said. “Sometimes it might feel like we’re in a bubble by ourselves, but we’re not directly put in a bubble. [Faculty and staff ] try to reach out to everybody around us.”

Kelly said that while the opinions of some of her schoolmates towards the program may be “discouraging,” IB students are “cool.”

“IB students are going somewhere,” she said.

Students on the IB track take all IB courses ranging from core classes to

DESIGN/PHOTOGRAPHY/NEWS GATHERING/WRITING-IN DEPTH

IB IS LIFE cont.

electives. Some classes, however, are only offered at an AP level, like Simmons’ daughter Kristian’s AP Calculus class.

Although the school encourages IB students to take both the AP and IB examinations as a fall-back option to gain college credit, Hammack said “there is a bad marriage between AP and IB.” “It’s really an apples and oranges comparison,” he said. “IB’s philosophy is not just to acquire the knowledge, but to be able to use it. And to use it right.”

Every test in Hammack’s class is essaybased. In addition to taking notes and listening to lectures, students are expected to read, research and replicate academic studies.

“The reason why I teach IB, and the reason why I support it is because I think that it’s the best for college preparatory,” Hammack said. “In college, there is no multiple choice.”

Although he has seen former students go on to honors college program s and universities like Vanderbilt and Harvard, Hammack said it’s often “hard to get the full [IB] dipoma.”

“I tell my students all the time, ‘Am I worried about you getting into college? Yes. ‘Do I want you to get a full scholarship?’ Yes,” he said. “‘...but I also want you to be successful there.”

Hammack said the school tries to build a “community of scholars” through the IB program.

“I’m not gonna lie, its not an easy walk,” he said. “They’re all going through the same struggles, the same strifes, the same situations. They should all be working together, pullin’ together, studying for tests – this is their class.”

The point system (ranging from 1-7) that the program is based off of, Hammack said, can “throw students off ” who may do well in one class but struggle in another.

“You make a two or below and your diploma days are done,” he said.

While IB students tend to have their eyes set on higher education, Sutton said plans for college aren’t in every student’s agenda.

“They hear you preaching, ‘You’ve got to go to college.’ ‘No one I know has been - what are you talking about?’ It’s that exposure gap we’ve got to try to bridge,” Sutton said.

The sentiment among IB students to strive for excellence, Hill said, is attributed to how much a student “wants” a future for themselves.

“You gotta want it more than anything.

You have to want like the best possible thing for yourself. If you don’t want it, then you’re not gonna do it.”

This internal drive to succeed, Kristian said, is often coupled with pressure from parents.

“My dad stays on me,” she said. “My parents, they ride us.”

Parental involvement is a privilege Kristian said she is grateful for, but it is not one that everybody is lucky to have. Some

students let that define them, while some, Kristian said, “use that lack of motivation as determination.”

“There are a lot of students here that are like, ‘You know, my folks didn’t go to college. My folks don’t really care about my grades, but I’m gonna... show them that I can do it.”

Kelly, Kristian’s “best friend,” is one of those students.

“She pushes herself,” Kristian said, lips curling up into a smile. “...And I really commend her for that.”

Kelly spent her elementary school summers “doing worksheets” for her dad who moved to Las Vegas when she got to high school. Without his positive influence, Kelly said her academic responsibilities began to “all fall on [her].”

“My dad put education on me, like education everything,” she said. “My mom didn’t stress it as much as my dad... so they don’t check in on me at school.”

Through her perseverance and selfdetermination, however, Kelly is able to see the fruits of her labor: a $20,000 scholarship to Alabama A&M. “I used the fact that I don’t wanna be in Tuscaloosa after I graduate high school as my motivation,” she said. “I know that I don’t wanna make the same mistake that my parents made, like havin’ a child in high school, or not going to college, or not making a career for yourself... It’s not the lifestyle I want.”

Although she was able to stick with the program in lieu of external motivators, Kelly said she tries to sympathize with her peers that have “potential” to be in the IB program but are blocked from a path to higher education by obstacles outside of school.

“I have a friend,” she said. “He’s in regular classes, but he’s really smart... He grew up in the same classes as me, but when he came to high school he was havin’ a rough time in his life, so he stepped back from doin’ the smart kid stuff.”

Kelly’s friend is senior Jaylon Robertson.

“School would have been big to me because, like I always was smart – I’m still smart – I just, I lack that motivation. I lack that drive. I lost interest... a long time ago,” he said.

Dressed in all black, shoulder-length dreadlocks swishing as he walks, Robertson said his appearance as well as his placement in regular classes provides for stereotyping.

“They tend to call people like me crazy or whatever,” he said. “[A teacher] he look at me like I’m some bad guy. Like I just do street stuff... I guess cause of the way I look doesn’t fit. Fit for the way I think or whatever.”

Robertson said he wished people like that teacher had an understanding that “everybody don’t view life the way they do.”

“Maybe he’s seen people like me that been in my shoes and did these things, so he categorized me, he put me in a box,” he said. “But I’m not like no one.”

In earlier schooling, Robertson was “placed in gifted programs,” honors classes and attended New Dimensions, a private school where he said he developed his math skills and placed third in a math contest.

“I mean, I’m not this bad person!” he said. “There was this one time, I got in trouble and the principal looked at my record and he was surprised to find out there was nothing on there.”

These experiences, Robertson said, caused him to have a cynical view of academic excellence.

“It gets to the point where kids just try to get a high GPA, to make an A to pass that test, and they’re not really learning,” he said.

Robertson said school should be about learning over getting the grade, but he is sometimes ostracized for not following specific instructions.

“I could be in a class and learn the concept, and the teacher knows that I learned the concept, but if I didn’t write it this way, they’d count off,” he said.

While Robertson said being ahead in regular classes often resulted in misunderstandings from his teachers, Kristian said her teachers have been instrumental to her success in AP and IB classes.

“A lot of the teachers here, maybe not all of them, but a lot of the teachers here at Central, it’s more than just about ‘my job.’

It’s about getting an education here,” she said. “And so that’s where teachers kinda step up and they’re like, you know, ‘Well, I don’t care if your parents don’t care, I am here to help you.’”

Students’ level of confidence in course material, adequate preparation for exams and a classroom’s overall environment “depend on the teacher,” Kristian said.

“We have the best AP Calculus teacher,” she said, her eyes lighting up. “He is the best! He gets the curriculum and shows us specific examples on what we need to know. He makes sure that you’re prepared on how to do it.”

Math and robotics teacher Denver Guess taught Kristian for three years.

“I think that she is similar to most students as she isn’t used to the depth in which I’m gonna push her mathematical thinking,” he said. “Most students are used to kind of looking at a book and working through the problems, but I’m gonna force them to start taking those problems and then applying them to the real life situations.”

A former student as well as a teacher in schools he said had similar demographics and socioeconomics as Central, Guess said his goal for his students is to develop “not only in mathematics but internally as well.”

“Most students have external motivation. Very few have internal motivation. And it’s our job as teachers to kind of train them to be able to have internal motivation as well,” he said.

Guess said it’s a challenge, but he

“wouldn’t want to teach at any other school.”

“My heart comes with my roots,” he said. “One of the great parts of being a teacher is we get to make wonderful longlasting relationships with students - it’s just great to see them grow. That’s, for me, the joy we get as teachers” “Alright, I got one,” Hammack said after letting his students share childhood stories for a unit on learning.

“I was six years old. My dad was changing the alternator in my mother’s car. He’s got the hoods popped up...” he said.

“Ohhh Lorddd...” some students interjected.

“I was sittin’ in the driver’s seat and listenin’ to the radio and got hot... Well, I turned the car on...” he said. “It was like I almost snatched my dad’s arm off. I mean he came unGLUED!” Before he could get to the moral of the story, Hammack’s students broke out into laughter, some shaking their heads.

Hammack’s teaching style, while in line with the IB course of study, is adaptive to his students.

“It’s easy to enjoy a class when you have a great teacher,” junior Justin Morrow said.

“I don’t know how great I am...”

Hammack said, cheeks slightly flushed.

“Well, you do trip about these tardies,” Morrow said, the class chiming in in laughter.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TEACHER GOOD? While at Central, I was fortunate to be able to experience what Kristian prided the school on: teachers who care. One teacher that stuck out to me was Dr. Hammack. His class was just so lively, and from the picture below, it was obvious his students loved him.

I knew that I should capture these moments, so I set up the story to begin and end with the conversations that took place in this classroom to show what learning is truly all about.

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As a majorette at Northridge, I knew there was an intense rivalry between my band and Bryant’s, reaching back to when the programs were first started. When visiting Bryant the second day, I really wanted to get a grasp of what their band was like from an inside perspective. I walked into band director Selwyn Reed’s office, where he was counting out beats, snapping his fingers as a student tapped a rhythm onto a drum.

I introduced myself and began to interview Reed on his experiences directing the band and his plans for rebuilding the program.

Because we did not have mentors at Bryant like we did at Central, it was extremely difficult to find students and faculty to interview. Relying on my own observation, I stumbled across the drum line practicing outside. I asked the captain for a few minutes of his time, and questioned him on his perception of Northridge’s band. It was obvious that he held a great amount of pride towards his own band, and I wanted to capture that in the story, as the other members seemed to have similar sentiments.

At the end of the day, though, it was clear that there was no reason for anything but a healthy relationship between Northridge and Bryant’s bands, who - after all - Reed said were birthed from the “same Mama.” The Stampede was much more than a rival, they were a family that has been through it all.

Returning band director admired by Bryant students “Wild, live, fun... Energy,” are words junior saxophone section leader Taylor Watkins said describe Bryant High School’s marching band.

The founder of a tradition since 2003, director Selwyn Reed was welcomed back to the program after a seven year absence.

“I left a really strong and solid program, and very competitive program, and I went to a school that was in dire need of restructuring,” Reed said.

Returning from kickstarting high school band programs in south Alabama and Perry County, Reed said he plans to implement the same programs at Byrant.

“We basically turned into a comprehensive music program which means that not only was it known for just a marching program; we established a jazz, symphonic concert and a high school beginning program as well,” he said.

Reed said he’s “like a sponge,” soaking up inspiration in every band room he walks into.

“There’s a quote that says, ‘The more you read, the more you realize you know absolutely nothing.’ I’d be a fool to think I know it all,” he said. “I learn from my students, you know. I feed off of them. The

36

more excited they are about learning the more I’m gonna try to pump everything I got in my head into them.”

Reed said his plan for next season is to “create a sense of stability in the program.” “[I plan to] shift the paradigm to more work than fun,” he said.

Junior Chris Johnson, French horn section leader, said the band changed “dramatically” when Reed returned.

“Last year it was based off of fun,” he said.

“We learned our music, current music. Mr. Reed is old school.”

Reed said the band’s marching and music style follows that of an “R&B traditional marching show band.”

“I try to stay away from the hip hop,” he said.

Junior Tyler Williams, drum section leader, said Reed’s return made the band “more disciplined.”

“It’s for the better, forreal forreal. We’re takin’ a big step ahead,” he said.

Reed said the program is all about “dedication, hard work and the spirit to compete.” He said he plans to expose the band’s talent “to people outside of Tuscaloosa.”

“If you’re talented, what good is it to be

talented and no one knows it but you?” he said.

Talented band programs across the city breed a competitive attitude among the students, Reed said.

“I don’t know where this rivalry thing came from, you know?” Reed said, chuckling. “It’s just like brothers and sisters goin’ home, bein’ mad at Mama. Mama brought us into the world, so who am I to go and fuss at Mama?”

Central High School, Reed said, “birthed Northridge and Bryant,” after a desegregration order was lifted in 1999.

“Everything, athletics, academics, was split down the middle three ways,” he said.

To establish a supportive environment between the city schools, Reed said he tries “to foster an atmosphere where the kids can have some camaraderie with the three organizations.”

“These three schools have more in common than they really realize,” he said.

A strong sense of pride in Bryant’s band, however, still remains in Williams’ eyes. “[The other schools are] nowhere near us.

Point blank period,” he said. “[Bryant is] all a family, and we leave it at that.”

LEADERSHIP/NEWS GATHERING/WRITING-NEWS

WRITING-NARRATIVE

A final reflection BRYANT Banners hanging proudly from the ceilings of Bryant’s halls proclaimed the school’s emphasis on college readiness to me as I backtracked through the backwards blueprint of what I was so accustomed to. The school, I came to notice, was built a mirror image of Northridge - everything the same but opposite.

The halls were brightly painted; most walls acted as canvasses for the art department’s latest mural.

Showcased outside the art rooms upstairs were impressive sculptures and works of mixed mediums that suggested a strong visual arts program.

The hallways were not as congested; students went about their business, paying little attention to the strangers who seemed to just blend into their demographics.

Bryant had a neutral, slightly calmer disposition than its sister schools; perhaps, this was due to its smaller student population than Northridge.

Interests outside of the classroom seemed to be the central focus of the school. Whether it was college prep, art, theatre or band, student interests were thoroughly accommodated.

As I entered the band room, the visual pleasantries that graced the hallways changed to auditory. Mr. Selwyn Reed sat with two band members in his office, drumming to sheet music on the arm of a chair. Trumpets blared while the dance line rehearsed their routines.

The instillment of an exceptional fine arts program in the school has promoted a more flavorful, cultural air about Bryant that clung to me even as I walked out of its doors, stepping to the beat of the drum line’s cadence.

“

At the end of this project, I want all students in the area to be able look at each Tuscaloosa city school with the same amount of pride that they would their own.

“

CENTRAL As I maneuvered my car into a vacant spot in the visitor’s parking lot, the rounded, red brick building standing tall, roughly 20 feet away from my feet reminded me that I was about to trade in my identity for that of a Central Falcon.

I opened the door to the front entrance of Central High School. The place was familiar; just under five minutes away from my house, the school was a landmark I grew up around. However, what awaited inside was a world completely different than the one I had grown accustomed to in my three years as a student in an integrated high school.

Sunlight peeked through the clouds and illuminated a lobby where I was greeted by a crowd of mentors and other exchangees, friendly faces eager to show me what it was like to walk their halls, sit in their desks, learn from their teachers and interact with their classmates.

A couple lingering students made their way back to class after a few words or a fist bump from Dr. Sutton. He then turned to us with a wide, warm smile and welcomed us into his family.

Our group dispersed, and I followed the lead of my mentor Alisha Caves, another familiar face in an ironically unfamiliar environment. Alisha and a handful of other students in Central’s IB program were my middle school classmates. Split up from a magnet school that attracted students from all areas of Tuscaloosa, it was refreshing to be reunited.

Mirroring the uniform schedule of students on the IB track, I spent the day surrounded by a group of students that easily made me feel at home. They didn’t hesitate to push their rigorous IB coursework to the side in order to make sure I felt welcome.

Vivacious, spirited characters made their ways in and out of the doors of Dr. Russell Hammack’s IB psychology class, leaving the class in a fit of laughter. In fact, when the class wasn’t focused on reading an ungodly amount of academic studies, their lively spirit never seemed to cease.

The closeness of the students made for an incredibly comfortable classroom atmosphere, one which fostered limitless discussions on the material being taught. The students exuded confidence when they spoke; no one timidly raised their hands or sunk in their seats to share an answer.

As the day progressed, I grew more and more blissful. Positive attitudes resonated in a school targeted by negative stigmas.

This experience opened my eyes to a program that, with its members’ hospitality and eager attitudes, has the potential to do great things for their community.

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ACTIVISM/ENTREPRENEURSHIP/WRITING-OPINION

pushing for change

Young people can’t wait on change

Backlit p­­­hotographs dot the walls of the Dinah Washington Cultural Arts Center. A moderator from National Public Radio sets up audio equipment. Five chairs stand empty in front of an awaiting audience.

An entourage of brighteyed photojournalists files in, filling the seats one by one.

They’re not from Times, nor do they work for the Post we are the Grandchildren of Brown, and we speak for Tuscaloosa’s youth.

In 2013, ProPublica reporters Nikole HannahJones and Amanda Zamora approached journalism students at two local high schools, Central and Northridge, to paint a picture of student relations within their respective schools.

As if racial imbalance between the schools wasn’t obvious, it was verified by stark contrast in demographic reports. Hannah-Jones, who covers race-related issues across the country, set out to uncover the root of this problem: After the original Central High School split, Central had become virtually all black, leaving Northridge and Bryant the only truly integrated high schools in the system.

Her article Segregation Now, while controversial, sparked healthy discussion.

However, it wasn’t just race relations that got people talking. By enlisting the help of high school students, Hannah-Jones let the world see through a clearer lens.

Equipped with cameras and a crash course on photography, we wandered the halls to capture what a demographic study couldn’t.

The photographs from Northridge undoubtedly showed racial divides; the majority of lunch tables were segregated, and at social events, most students stuck to their kind. However, they also captured camaraderie between students of all races - this was

especially prevalent in after-school clubs and extracurriculars.

While racial diversity was lacking at Central, emotions were universal: a girl’s smile, radiant after a Powder Puff victory; furrowed brows from concentrating on rigorous coursework; and laughs and handshakes shared between friends.

Through photojournalism, we began to peel back the many layers of social structure in our schools.

We soon realized that it wasn’t so black and white, and we had something to show for it.

So here we are in this alternate universe, scanning a room of board members and professors, of concerned citizens and parents, of art enthusiasts and critics who are waiting to hear what we, the students, have to say about our work.

Through a panel discussion, we convey our unadulterated truths. We share stories of our neighborhoods that seem to be gerrymandered into the “good” school zone, of hearing racial slurs in our classrooms, and of the tension between schools that make us ineligible to compete against each other.

The moderator takes the mic and asks me how in the world we can achieve this vision of diversity, peace and well-being in our schools. I’m stumped, so I answer, “Time.”

“That’s it?” he says, “...just time?”

I try to come up with a feasible solution, but I’m at a loss for words.

The truth is, time accounts for very little social change. Time didn’t start movements, activists did.

Soon, the answer becomes clear: The only way to break down the stigmas between our schools is to break them down ourselves. That night, it was decided that we would lead Tuscaloosa’s first student-led intracity exchange program.

The following year was comprised of countless hours of planning, of taking steps forward and backward, of following protocols and of jumping through hoops, but we ultimately achieved what we had set forth to do. Glancing back, we were able to speak at conventions and give young journalists the tools they needed to investigate issues in

In the summer of 2015, I reached out to a local newspaper The Tuscaloosa News, seeking an opportunity to work with them. I was persistent in keeping communication with their editors, and I ultimately ended up with a byline as Guest Columnist. I was to write a column for the paper every month or so, which would be sent in via email, edited and placed.

Unsure of which direction I should go with my writing, I decided to speak out on issues pertaining to the youth. Feuled by feedback from the exchange, it was obvious to me what my first column would be about: how young people can raise the volume in their community, too. their own backyards. We were able report on-site at every city school, uncovering stories that exposed the humanity in all students regardless of their race or family income. And, collectively, we were able to show the “grown-ups” that through this short-lived unification of the schools, we had achieved a greater understanding among each other and a stronger sense of pride towards the system as a whole.

The fight for the exchange introduced us, at our tender ages, to the trials and tribulations of enacting social change - something every young person should experience.

Activism is innate. We learn to babble and coo as infants, we learn to form coherent sentences as toddlers, and by high school,

we learn to deductively reason and think abstractly. Students, therefore, have the intellectual capability to speak up.

In today’s age, adolescents are granted several platforms for doing so, whether it’s through social media, protests and petitions, scholastic journalism, or art. Proper utilization of these tools can make for a voice that echoes throughout communities, a voice representative of teens hoping for a brighter future.

The duty of improving America is not limited to the old and the wise; sometimes progress comes from the tenacious spirit of a new generation.

ACTIVISM/ENTREPRENEURSHIP/WRITING-OPINION

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Being politically correct isn’t such a bad thing Merriam Webster is a beautiful thing. Easily accessible to voters and candidates alike, it’s always there for the sake of research. One might even stumble upon the following: 1. Considerate: “thinking about the rights and feelings of other people; showing kindness toward other people.”

2. Humane: “marked by compassion, sympathy, or consideration for humans or animals.”

3.

Politically correct: “following the belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities (as in matters of sex or race) should be eliminated.”

That last definition might take a minute to process.

Especially if you’re Donald Trump, a presidential hopeful who claims political correctness is just a roadblock in his crusade to “Make America Great Again.”

The term “politically correct” gets flak from critics for limiting freedom of speech (or the freedom to use poor rhetoric to belittle others). It is more often put down as a pejorative than as a form of acceptance.

The “loaded misnomer” deceives good people into behaving in a way that reflects, dare I say, tolerance towards humankind.

And the thought of pushing for such an awful thing is brushed off their starched, white collared shirts, because we could be doing better things than creating an atmosphere of respect in our communities, after all.

Contrary to what the leading GOP candidate and his supporters believe, America does in fact have time to be politically correct. America would actually be saving time in doing so, conserving all the wasted minutes Trump spends uttering blatantly racist and sexist remarks towards women and the Hispanic community.

Rather than criticizing his female opponents on their

political views, Trump spends an awful lot of time making jabs at their outward appearances.

Like the snot-nosed bully from your grade school nightmares, he jeers at them, calling them “fat pigs, dogs, and slobs.”

He’d be saving the time it took to suggest that it’s the Mexicans who “rape our women” and “deal drugs,” although it won’t be long before he expands his prejudices to other ethnic groups.

And in response to the newscaster who dared to call Trump out on his vices, he’d be saving the time spent conjuring up tweets deeming her a “bimbo” for exercising a journalistic duty.

Words, like other art forms, hold power. Those in the position to be heard must use that power wisely; thoughtfulness can become a vehicle for positive change, but speaking without thought can steer that vehicle off the road and into a deep dark ditch.

Trump is no artist. He has no eye for attuning to the struggles of our minorities. He has no finesse for speaking out against the evils of intolerance.

He paints with a false sense of realism, brushing off race and gender issues as a part of life.

Unfortunately, he’s in a position to be heard, he has spoken, and the damage has already been done.

Russell Berman of The Atlantic reported a Trumpinspired hate crime against a homeless Latino man on Aug. 20. After “urinating on” and assaulting the man with a metal pole, one perpetrator justified his actions by alluding to Trump’s stance on securing the border. Trump responded to the incident, stating that his fans were “passionate.”

Human decency and empathy seem to fall through the cracks for Trump, who unapologetically “tells it like it is.” He puts on the hat of an “outsider,” dangerously suggesting that bigotry is synonymous with

radicalism.

Sadly, he manages to strike a chord with those who feel like minorities themselves, silenced by advocates of political correctness. Thirty-two percent of Republican voters tune in to his message with open ears and hopeful hearts; they identify with Trump’s extremist views, cleverly disguised as frankness or “real talk,” because it’s comforting to them.

Trump, a straight white male, freed them from the daunting task of avoiding racial slurs, of respecting women, of being considerate and humane. He freed them from the chore of thinking before they speak. His listeners will no longer waste time worrying about the plight of those who go through life being told they are inferior, because to Trump, they’re just illegals, or bimbos, or slobs, or dogs, or fat pigs.

For the influx of first-time voters like myself, I hope they would dare to sacrifice some comfort for the sake of those who are truly suffering. I hope they are sensitive to the insecurities planted in the heads of those who aren’t given a voice.

I hope they know that true equality isn’t an insurmountable feat that we should just give up on. I hope they make time for political correctness, because one man has shown us just how much America needs it.

In this election of the

thoughtful vs. thoughtless, I hope they choose the former.

I tend to shy away from political opinion pieces, as I think they often promote their own agendas as opposed to pushing for real change.

And, growing up in a ideologically divided family, Thanksgiving and Christmas were enough to leave me with an aversion to politics for good, or so I thought.

However, I soon realized that for some people, the privilege of ignoring others’ opinions simply does not exist.

Because for many, what we say matters and can directly affect their lives.

This is why, with the presidential debates in tow and Donald Trump as a Republican front-runner, I couldn’t help but voice my opinion on the matter.

Keeping with my theme to speak about youth-related issues, I wanted to address young voters.

This column explores the importance of empathy in a political system, and it criticizes Trump and his supporters for a lack of it.

I wanted this column to open the minds of those who often overlook the plight of miniorities in America and show just how important it is to vote for a candidate who will help them rather than harm them.

While I live in a predominantly red state, this article was well-recieved by members of my community, many of whom personally reached out to me to encourage me to keep writing.

CARRYING ON LEE’S LEGACY

Sequel to Lee’s classic reveals more harsh truths

NED

SIG

I DE

Go Set a Watchman was released at a pivotal point in my investigation of racial relations in my district. As Harper Lee was a major inspiration to me, I knew I wanted to review her new book. I found there was much to learn from the book regarding the complexity of systemic and covert racism, and reviewed it in a way that would educate students on the issue. I composed a well-rounded review, touching on Lee’s writing style as well as diving in to its deeper themes.

An iconic bookshelf staple, To childhood heroes aren’t exactly always known as blatant bigotry, Kill A Mockingbird delivers on favorable. but now she does. And she all fronts; revolutionary in an On an artistic level, Lee struggles in doing so, falling era stained by segregation, the maps the complexity of Scout’s prey to the false logic and novel disrupts the conventional, character in a way that is truly conservative principles preached comfortable Southern way of masterful. Her use of dialogue is by her condescending uncle. life cemented by simple minds raw and real, perfectly depicting The book, however, could do a and ignorance. It addresses that of a lost soul whose entire better job at making this clearer. racism through the innocent, childhood has been uprooted By setting Scout up for failure, yet widening eyes of a child by the one she loves the most. it’s easy to confuse readers into as she comes of age, and the Through outbursts and rebellion, thinking Scout really is wrong; reader cannot help but grow up through snarky comments and her boldness and stubborn along with her. It’s shaking. It’s sarcasm, and through the rare attitude could be seen as follies artful. And for some, it’s all too instances where she actually sits rather than strengths. familiar. still and lets the grown-ups talk, Where it expands on So the fanfare surrounding Scout lets the reader in on her unnecessary love interests, the the publishing of Harper Lee’s struggle to make sense of her book lacks important details. second book, which has been own conscience.

While Hank, Scout’s lover, adds in hiding for over fifty years, The adult Scout matures in to the curious case of Scout’s is perfectly understandable. a way much different than her femininity, he’s not integral to Speculation of its plot and first coming of age; this time, the story. Instead, Lee could premise has finally ceased, and she’s shown the harsh reality further develop Calpurnia’s now one can ask if it’s really that there isn’t much justice character and hone in on the worth the hype. after all. And yes, while many court case’s influence on the Now a twenty-six year old may view her father’s moral black community, widening the living in New York City, Scout downfall as a lesson that “we’re readers’ perspective. makes her annual trip back all human,” “change happens,” And most importantly, it needs I DREW THIS to the place she used to call and “family is still family,” those a new ending. A darker one, home. But it’s not exactly home. notions are not the underlying perhaps, that doesn’t trivialize Cheerful childhood nostalgia, moral of the story. the real problem at hand in the an element deeply rooted in To While racism in the first name of happy endings.

Kill A Mockingbird, appears only book is obvious, centered Despite its flaws, Go Set A in sporadic flashbacks; Scout’s around an unfair verdict Watchman did not disappoint. world has lost its charm amidst against a black man, this book Lee’s progressive thinking the ever-pressing Brown v. unravels the layers of ingrained shined throughout the book Board of Education decision. racism – racism that Atticus as she explored white privilege Go Set A Watchman paints a tries to justify, racism that’s and institutional racism. While different picture of Maycomb up for debate. Lee’s sense of it didn’t provide a solution or County as its members timelessness prevails, as this is, closure to these problems, the assemble against integration in many cases, the root of our book is most certainly ahead its and equal rights. It’s a picture modern day dilemma. time.

Because Lee throws in these And aside from its deepOur entertainment editor needed a graphic of shame and guilt and anger, for my story, so I offered to draw a mockingbird. I and of confusion. Especially of well-educated characters like seated themes, Lee captivates Atticus and Uncle Finch to the reader once again through then scanned it into Photoshop, cutting it out and confusion. transferring it to Illustrator, where I made the ar- To many readers’ dismay, the “enlighten” Scout on “what’s humor and depth and the flair row and the ink splatter, symbolizing “Killing the characters introduced in the first really going on,” the reader is in which she writes. She pokes book are redefined - particularly introduced to a world where fun at religion, at small talk, at Mockingbird.”

The drawing was actually lost in transferring Atticus, the God-like figure smart people stand on the petty Southern customs without denigrating the good left in the the graphic to Indesign, but the drop shadow I that used to stand for what was wrong side of history.

Never before has Scout South. Lee strikes again, adding added saved the day, providing a more muted im- just and what was right. Now advocates of Southern pride had to make an intelligible another book to her undying age and allowing for more space for text. and “states’ rights;” Scout’s counterargument to what she’s legacy.

S THI

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ILLUSTRATION/MULTIMEDIA/WRITING-REVIEW

Bernie Sanders: a true feminist Settling for a candidate that simply “isn’t sexist” just won’t cut it.

Nobody, with the exception of Donald Trump, is screaming their prejudices from any rooftops, but that, by no means, means bigotry is “imaginary.”

This isn’t about Trump, though, who blatantly “tells it like it is.”

This is about the politicians who have reinvented racism and sexism through dog-whistle politics, using coded rhetoric to appeal to an audience that’s still behind the times and afraid to admit it.

Prejudice now takes form through campaigns to “preserve Western culture” and to put a stop to “welfare queens,” “thugs” and “un-American, anti-patriotic” ideals.

Forget multiculturalism, they say. This is ‘Merica.

However, this kind of sentiment does nothing but reverse the efforts feminists, humanists, egalitarians and other civil rights workers have fought so hard for.

Efforts that, contrary to popular belief, are not over.

The Suffragettes, while they paved the way for women’s rights, were largely unconcerned with the plight of AfricanAmericans. A movement that started out with the support of Frederick Douglass quickly devolved into a white woman’s cause, as they often spoke out in efforts to bar black males from gaining voting rights before them.

New wave feminism, however, brings intersectionality, the idea that privilege is broken down not only by gender, but by race and class as well.

This would seem like a huge step in the right direction, but

the movement is often met with

resistance - often with comments

like, “Women got their right to vote a long time ago; there’s no need for feminism any more.”

But, in the words of Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, that’s just simply not true.

Maternity leave, wage inequality and affordable women’s healthcare are just a handful of issues that today’s women face.

The injustice extends beyond gender and into racial and class divides as well, especially with the recent attack on Planned Parenthood, an organization that offers cancer screenings, contraception, STD testing and other sexual and reproductive health services at low prices.

Sadly, this program is under the scrutiny of the right-wing for only three percent of what they offer: abortions.

Candidates like Carly Fiorina have publicly denounced the organization, dog-whistling against “an immoral America” and vowing to do whatever it takes - including overturning Roe v. Wade - to abolish a woman’s right to choose.

Sanders, however, is far from a dog-whistler. He has a clear cut message that doesn’t require any quirky quips or cryptic lingo; he speaks out of substance.

He stands up and fights for the rights of not only white women, but black women, gay women, Latina women, Muslim women, elderly women, young women, poor women, disabled women and single mothers. And he’s been doing this for years.

As a twenty year old in the sixties, Sanders led sit-ins with his fellow colleagues. Today, his platform includes solutions to end economic, political, legal and

physical violence against AfricanAmericans.

As anyone should, he promises to combat all forms of intolerance in America.

Since the early eighties, Sanders has stood up for antidiscriminatory policies against LGBTQs, and during a campaign speech, he vowed to the Muslim community to fight against a raging case of Islamophobia.

He intends to unite immigrant families, granting them opportunities for citizenship and housing.

He acknowledges prejudice against women in the work force, and he aims to bridge the gender pay gap by signing the Paycheck Fairness Act. This includes working mothers, who he plans to offer family leave, paid vacation and quality day care.

He supports real family values for immigrants as well, meaning reunifying and granting their families citizenship and affordable housing.

For women of all ages, he aims to provide a debt-free college education, expand Social Security and introduce a fifteen dollar minimum wage.

And throughout his whole career, he’s been at the forefront for women’s reproductive rights throughout his whole career, vowing to expand Planned Parenthood and other services to ensure quality healthcare for all women.

This is what a feminist looks like.

Until my senior year, I had refrained from writing any columns - I stuck strictly to play, book and movie reviews when voicing my opinion. But after two issues, I began to notice a problem with our beat page centered around the 2016 presidential election.

I wanted to prevent a backand-forth between just two of our staffers, regular columnists who sit on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum. While debate is healthy, I didn’t agree with readers being limited to only two perspectives, especially in a diverse student body affected by a series of societal issues.

So I called dibs on the next one, just as one of the staffers expressed his need to “fight back.” He seemed surprised, but welcomed me the chance to add my two cents to the debate - a fresh female perspective to a male dominated discussion.

A FEMALE VOICE ON POLITICS ETHICS/WRITING-OPINION

41

Save honest journalism, bring back the muckrakers Conservatives seem to be in a quite a tizzy over the “liberal mainstream media.”

When challenged by CNBC moderators, GOP candidates were quick to blame the Left for its “brainwashing” of the American people, a cop-out that earned them some shiny gold stars from the audience.

Brainwashing? Propaganda?

Before pointing fingers, they might want to take a long, hard look at the history of conservative media.

It’s a simple recipe, really, dug up from the old giants of the yellow press.

Yellow journalism was born in the 1890’s, when reporters combined hyperbole with melodrama, spicing up their headlines in what was at first William Hearst’s competitive effort to outsell Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. Empty claims and doctored details led to a misrepresentation of Spanish and Cuban relations, and ultimately resulted in the Spanish-American War, the first “press-driven” war.

Fifty years later, the media turned up the heat. In what was notoriously known as the Red Scare, Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy fueled a fire of fearmongering rhetoric, eviscerating all anti-capitalist ideals. As a result, alleged communists were fired from their jobs and blacklisted.

And once the fear set in, the press justified it by sprinkling some cherry-picked statistics on top. During the Vietnam War, newspapers published enemy body counts as a way to relay military “progress.” Although those figures were fabricated, those charts aided in escalating the war.

One would think that would mark the end of journalism’s dark past, but somewhere around 1996, history repeated itself.

In efforts to preserve a stronghold of “truth,” the famously conservative Fox News was founded. They have since employed a litany of unethical journalistic practices into their “fair and balanced” regime.

Following in the footsteps of Hearst and Pulitzer, they invoke extreme nativist sentiments in their headlines, like “New Black Panthers Plot With

42

Ahmadinejad to Overthrow America.” This verbiage carries over to the big screen; in a situation eerily similar to those of the first war journalists, host Bill O’Reilly went under fire for exaggerating his breadth of foreign combat coverage.

Modern day McCarthyism prevails in a post 9/11 era, where Islamophobia runs rampant. O’Reilly, Hannity and the likes have since waged a secondary “war on terror,” vying for the destruction of mosques, accusing education programs of imposing Sharia Law, discouraging Muslims to hold office, and raising eyebrows about President Obama’s own beliefs, implying that the entire faith of Islam is responsible for their unfounded paranoia.

And as for pseudoscience, it’s just as real today as it was in the past. Media Matters, a liberal research organization that evaluates the validity of Fox data, compiled a list of their most dishonest charts.

The results revealed that they were more than just slightly inaccurate, they were outright backwards.

Statistics on government spending, job losses, gas prices and unemployment rates were blown up to ungodly proportions under the Obama administration, while Fox neglected to note a hike nearly eight times as steep under Bush’s watch.

The right wing has let these tactics boil and brew for years, ladling them onto a big heaping plate of Faux News. One would think their ratings would go sour, but for some reason, viewers continue to eat it up.

In fact, after 13 years, Fox News is still the most watched cable news network for primetime, morning, and evening programs. And just in this past month, Fox’s ratings have trumped those of CNN, MSNBC and HLN combined, reaching out to about one and a half million viewers per day.

How has this entity, built on the loose foundations of sensationalism and misinformation, survived so long without crumbling down?

Because corporate constraint has turned its watchdogs into sock puppets.

Big business is behind all mass media, liberal and conservative

alike. But unlike Fox, it’s not working in the Left’s favor.

With Time Warner’s CNN one of Hillary Clinton’s strongest supporters, her campaign gets far more coverage than her more progressive opponents.

Bernie Sanders’ revolutionary policies pose much more of a threat to the conservative agenda than Clinton’s. In a U.S, News and World Report liveblog poll on Facebook, was favored 82 of viewers responding said Sanders won the debate, with an overwhelming 82 percent of the vote. Shortly afterward, however, the poll was taken down by CNN and replaced with a headline boasting Hillary’s “victory.”

Her posed success was parroted by other media outlets, and her ratings rose with them.

Once respectable and truthseeking, mainstream media is now pulled by the strings of corporate influence. As a result, mass media is actually shifting right of center. What billionaire would support Sanders’ and the radical Left’s anti-corporate ideals, after all?

This is ignored by the Right, though; they’re too hung up on “liberal bias.”

Which is actually quite comical, since the lamestream media is far from endorsing anything remotely “socialist,” and their sorry excuses for moderators couldn’t spot a liar if their pants were on fire.

Just like in the second GOP debate, when CNN refrained from countering Carly Fiorina on her spiel against Planned Parenthood. They also failed to call Donald Trump out on his whole casino fiasco, his bankruptcies, his inflated figures for immigration reform and a handful of other ludicrous claims. And that’s just two of the candidates - the list goes on.

It’s clear that authenticity has left mass media for good, which puts the American public at a grave disadvantage. In a climate where truth is taboo, we would rather be “infotained” by corporate clowns than informed by legitimate sources.

So what does this bode for the fate of honest journalism?

There’s only one solution: it’s time to bring back the muckrakers.

This column falls in line with my stance on media bias, disproving the myth of “liberal bias” and instead attributing the downfall of respectable media to corporate influence and misinformation.

As a prospective professional journalist, I find the current mainstream media standards to be discouraging. And with school boards that don’t grant journalism courses a fine arts credit - like in the Tuscaloosa City Schools - students are becoming less and less media literate.

This has driven me to push for and support independent, authentic media outlets and educate others on the follies of corporate news stations.

Reflecting on what a scholastic journalism program has taught me, I end my column with a solution to this ever pressing problem, calling a new generation to step up and revolutionize modern media.

ACTIVISM/ENTREPRENEURSHIP/NEWS LITERACY/WRITING-OPINION

As President of Quill & Scroll, a national journalism honor society, my job is to preserve and promote authenticity in the media. Since my junior year on the staff, I have inducted three classes of members and held numerous early morning meetings to discuss community involvement plans.

QUILL & SCROLL

passing the torch

KEEPING JOURNALISM ALIVE

THE VERNER VOICE In 2015, I reached out to a local elementary school teacher Mattie Crofford, who was starting a newspaper called The Verner Voice. As Quill & Scroll President, I offered our help, and she agreed to let the staff and I assist her in editing her students’ work.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP/LEADERSHIP/TEAM BUILDING/ACTIVISM

43

but i’m not done yet FLIP THE PAGE AND SEE WHY

ASPA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR

2016 SINCE THE START OF

I have won

The da compe questi also at lastly, Just as addres was su and th

1 2 3 4 5 6

9 10 11 7 8 AWARDS STATE

&

placed

FIRST

IN NEWS WRITING

for the

3

rd

&

YEAR IN A ROW

I won

12

&

2016 ASPA ON

the

JB STEVENSON SCHOLARSHIP

...BUT I STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO

MAKING CONNECTIONS

ay that I was named ASPA Journalist of the Year, I had the opportunity to hear LA Times reporter Christi Parsons speak. As a contestant in the onsite etition, I was tasked with covering the keynote speech. However, I was so intrigued by Parson’s experience that I approached her with some additional ions. Having accomplished the exchange program at Central, I asked her about how her years in an integrated high school shaped her perspective. Parsons ttributed strong faith to her point of view, so I asked her how her faith shapes her political and world views and how that translates in her writing. And , with the news of Harper Lee’s passing which was announced just after her speech, my final question for her was about Lee’s influence on her as a writer. s she advised in her speech, I made a valuable connection with Parsons by asking what she claimed to be “thoughtful questions,” and she gave me her email ss. At the end of the convention, I was awarded first place for this story, which was judged by Parsons’ mother. When Parsons put the name to my face, she urprised; I was told laterthat night that the family thought I was a professional reporter. I followed up with Parsons and sent her some work I have done, hrough further correspondence, I was offered to sit in on a White House briefing with her in the near future.

N-SITE NEWSWRITING ENTRY: She stands tall in black slacks and a blazer, light brown hair coiffed to frame the eyes that have seen, the ears that have listened and the mouth that has asked question after question after question for the last 40 years. But there’s a wetness in those eyes of hers, and in her right hand she clenches a wad of tissues.

On the day of novelist Nelle Harper Lee’s passing, Christi Parsons remembers her literary idol, the woman who led her, 29 years later, to deliver a speech at the same journalism convention she had once attended as an eager, wide-eyed communications student. “[Lee wrote about] the complexities of the heo,” Parsons said. “...She wrote about these people who had a point of view that was messy and complicated…”

Parsons, upon reading Lee’s second novel Go Set a Watchman (which had been hidden away from publicists for years), was able to identify with Lee’s “deep portrait of heroes in the South” - as she herself had been part of that story for as long as she could remember.

“People don’t realize how special it is to be immersed in a community like this one,” she said.

An Alabama native, Parsons left her home in the country and traveled down a dirt road to the city of Tuscaloosa, where she was ordered by law to attend the newly integrated Central High School. “[Attending Central] was the most important single formative experience of my life,” she said. “...

It was this wonderful, messy, crazy, challenging environment [where we] worked together… we did business together… we were all together.”

Now a 26-year veteran of the Chicago Tribune and a White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, Parsons said that her high school years - plotted in the midst of groundbreaking racial and educational policy changes - were something that she “should have been writing about.”

Attending Central was something that would make her story almost akin to those of Lee or Hemingway or the great Gospel writers, she said.

“They were in an important movement and they wrote about it,” she said. “...[As a Christian], my faith teaches me to be open to other people… and that is the essence of journalism.”

Parsons didn’t realize how newsworthy her high

Take the ‘I’ out of your writing

school experience was until she arrived in Chicago to cover the police force and firefighters - a job she landed as a result of her work on the University of Alabama’s Crimson White and internships with the Birmingham News and Chicago Tribune.

“I wanted to be a voice,” she said.

As a home-grown Southerner, the Tribune saw Parsons as a rare and coveted voice of the South that would diversify the newsroom with something she carried closely to her heart: her point of view.

With a portfolio of her most prized newspaper clippings in hand, a young Parsons made her way over to Bob Davis’ office, a “salty old reporter” who had long since secured his place on the Tribune staff.

“He took a long drag on his cigarette, and he squinted at me,” Parsons said. “[He read my work], and he said to me, ‘Take the ‘I’ out of your writing.’”

It was in that moment that Parsons learned that the very best journalists are those who “understand the world outside of their point of view.”

“‘What do you mean?’” she asked a fellow journalist in the hallway of a capitol building, “...He was making this elliptical comment about quality care in the mental health field, [and I didn’t understand what he was talking about].”

Parsons, the first woman to be permanently assigned to cover the Illinois state capitol, was sitting at her desk late that night when a man handed her a manilla envelope. Enclosed was a “top secret” report on abuse in mental health institutions.

“That report became public, and it changed mental health in Illinois,” she said. “...[So] I tried to get to know more people like that.”

Parsons continued to make connections with these people “wherever they would talk.” She asked questions. She followed her curiosity. She asked for help. And she kept asking questions.

Over the course of her career, Parsons was able to form such connections with three of Illinois’ governors. Two of those governors went to prison for corruption, and Parsons was quick to write about them, too.

“And because of [those connections I made] I was able to conduct an hour-long interview with President Barack Obama just last week,” she said.

Parsons said she had “spent time trying to get

to know [Obama’s] work” when he was an Illinois senator.

“He gave a speech on partisanship,” she said, “and I was with him in this quiet room with three other lawmakers…”

Parsons knew one of those lawmakers; she had just held a two-hour long interview with him. And as it so happened, she also knew that the lawmaker had voiced criticisms and concerns that Obama’s status as an African American hugely influenced his path to becoming President.

“That led us to a rare, unrehearsed conversation about race,” Parsons said. “And it’s the people of substance that can handle tough questions [like that].”

As a keynote speaker at the Alabama Scholastic Press Association’s Feb. 19 convention, Parsons speaks from experience.

“I was at this conference 29 years ago. There was a keynote speech, and I don’t remember it,” she said. “Today I’m going to give you the speech I wish I heard.”

She gave her backstory. She got some laughs for her description of the “salty old reporter.” She got some claps for holding the longest interview conducted with President Obama. But then she brought the audience, the crowd of bright-eyed student journalists, back to that very moment where she was sitting in Bob Davis’ office.

“Take the ‘I’ out of your writing,” Parsons said.

“Before you can cultivate your voice, use your eyes and your ears… keep your eyes and your ears going.”

She quoted Hemingway’s response to a 1925 letter from a young writer requesting a resolve to his existential angst. “‘Don’t be an idiot,” Parsons said. “Write a lot, but see a lot more… Try all the time and get your conversation right; your point of view matters.”

And in memory of the late Harper Lee, Parsons recounted the plight of the truth-tellers, the killing of the messengers and the ostracization of those who dare to rock the boat.

“If you are a journalist who tells the truth, that will happen to you,” she said.

IN

DESIGN...

6

feature

The NorThridge reporTer February 16, 2016 Graphic by Rebecca Griesbach

proM Kyle & Sara Ferguson, circa 1985

high SChool SWeeThearTS

I DESIGNED THIS SPREAD The staff had not covered anything relating to teenage romance in my three years as an editor, so I thought it would be fun to lighten things up from the in-depth features. However, I still managed to convey some level of social awareness in what can almost be seen as a satire of “modern love.” I tasked staff members with uncovering the student body’s secret crushes, coupling them with polls and articles on dating shifts. The spread was an entertaining read that realistically mapped my generation’s struggle to define “love” through a growing empire of lustful influences. I tried to keep the design clean, yet whimsical to remind the student body that their youthful spirit can still live on even in this modern age.

Students discuss ins and outs of 21st century romance

proves young love can last a lifetime CedriC broWN & FaTeMa dhoNdia STaFF WriTerS

NeTFlix & WhaT? Rise of social media changes

face of the dating game SuMoNa gupTa eNTerTaiNMeNT ediTor

As the expression “Netflix and Chill” enters the country’s collective vernacular, like so many other pieces of slang, it’s seemed to have lost its original meaning.

Just recently, as Winter Storm Jonas sent massive amounts of snow across the east coast, many news outlets published similar listicles, claiming they had the ‘Checklist for an Epic Day of Netflix and Chill During Winter Storm Jonas.’ Now, it could be possible that the 20-something writers of these articles knew the true meaning of the saying and used it as a pun (“chill,” because it’s cold, get it?), but it’s also just as likely that the pre-teens reading those articles had no idea what it’s real meaning is.

If you know the saying’s real meaning, you’ll understand its roots in the emerging culture that dating apps bring.

They’re not like the paid services meant to help the desperate find love that we saw advertised in commercials, however. They’re now (usually) free, open to anyone with a smartphone and willing to put their picture, name, and approximate location out there for the world to see.

Tinder, the most popular of these apps, claims

to have made 9 billion matches as of January 2016. With approximately 10 million active users, according to Tinder’s website, one would wonder if there is some hope in finding a meaningful or relatively long-lasting relationship, if not true love.

Proponents of “mobile dating” could claim that with a larger group of people, there is more chance of finding someone you would be truly interested in. Another valid point is that of vetting a match before meeting in real life. Blind dates could eventually become completely obsolete, awkward meetings being avoided altogether when tested before a real-life meeting takes place.

While there are people who advocate for new age dating, there are just as many critics. The newfound problem of “catfishing” can be funny when taken lightly, but could be potentially devastating if one doesn’t get the hint when their partner’s webcam is continually broken. The entire concept of “Netflix and Chill” also pokes fun at the uncommitted hookup culture that the app could promote.

So what if you’re on the fence, wondering if it’s worth it? The beauty of the new “online” dating lies here; there’s not much of a risk, so it’s your choice whether you take it.

tinder

SlidiNg iN your dM’S liKe... sent

I DESIGNED THIS

Ferguson couple

yes no

18

recieved 20

46, 48 students polled. Information compiled by Addie Akins and Will Henson Infographic designed by Rebecca Griesbach

28

As February comes and love fills the air, couples and lovers are all coming together in this intimate month to showcase their love for each other.

As most high school students get treats for their loved one, many think the one they’re with is the one they’ll be with forever.

But what if it actually worked out between you and your high school sweetheart?

Principal Kyle Ferguson and his wife were once high school sweethearts.

In Ferguson’s senior year of high school he and his wife attended T.R Miller, a high school in southern Alabama, when they met.

“I knew that there was something special about her,” Ferguson said.

Ferguson and his wife were great friends before they started to date.

“There was only one problem,” Ferguson said, “she had a boyfriend.”

As the school year went on Ferguson took her away from her boyfriend, as they had their first date at the school’s homecoming dance.

“It was fun, so we decided we’d go on a second date.” Ferguson said.

Shortly after high school he decided that it would be better if they separated for a while because he went off to play college football.

He felt it was unfair to her that he was miles away from her and she couldn’t be with him. Ferguson knew they were never truly going away as he said.

“I always knew she was the one even though we broke up,” Ferguson said. Soon after, they got back together.

Ferguson acknowledged that high school love is a great chance for you to find “the one”.

“I mean, I married my high school girlfriend,” he said.

As February arrives, Ferguson already has plans for her.

“I’m gonna give her a picture of me,” he said with a chuckle.

“Really, I’m gonna take her out for a date and give her a charm for one of those Pandora’s bracelets.”

Have you sent or recieved a direct message on social media?

28 Art by Rebecca Han

lov

feature

somebody’s got a secreT admirer

From crushes to love stories, students tell all. Can you guess who they are?

“

Graphic by Rebecca Griesbach

My crush is sweet, funny, smart, and tall (cause I’m short). He is understanding and helps me with my problems. He can be a baby at times, but iT’s ok because i like iT. He is the right amount of clingy that you can’t get enough of. He is the most funniest guy and never fails to put a smile on my face. My crush isn’t even my crush, because he’s all miNe.

He is tall and plays basketball for the varsity team. he is perFecT and so funny. He is a senior.

[My crush is] someone who loves me for me, basically has the same views as I do, and supports everything I support. I want someone who is different and can introduce me to new things and isn’t afraid of being themselves. Someone who loves God with all their heart.

Someone who wears glasses and is as weird as me. Someone who is intelligent. They like hugs and treat me like they never want to let me go. Someone who appreciates the arts and loves it. Someone who understands what I go through and does whatever it takes to help me. They caN’T have Nubby FiNger Nails and have to smell really good.

He has to be dark skinned, taller than me and skinny.

she’s slim-Thick…

He has light, brown skin, brown hair, and has hazel eyes. He also plays basketball and he is in the 10th grade and rides the bus. Also he is roughly 6’1 or 6’2 and cute.

Brown hair, brown eyes, tall… he’s usually quieT in class but TurNT outside of class.

He’s tall, funny, handsome, athletic and gooFy. Well, he’s pretty tall and a huge sweetheart. His eyes are really pretty and he maintains eye contact which is really nice because I know he’s listening when I talk. Like how he always dresses nicely, and how he’s really handsome when he smiles. It’s fun being around him and even though he talks kind of slow and has a deep voice he’s actually a huge goofball. And i ThiNk his bloNde hair is preTTy cuTe Too.

“

He is Tall, cuTe, haNdsome, and dark skiNNed. He also plays football! my crush is smarT, and short, and the best person out there.

Information compiled by Camri Mason, Jordan Hutchinson, Destiny Hodges, Jabria Coleman and James Niiler

“We took Mrs. Allaway biology class ninth grade year, so on the first day of school we didn’t know each other at all.

On the second day, we met because I was late, and Jalen Madden sat in my seat, and the only seat that was open was beside her… I wasn’t going to say anything to her and just move the next day, but Mrs. Allaway had us play a game,” he said.

“We weren’t speaking at first because I had just moved to Tuscaloosa and didn’t know anyone. Mrs. Allaway had everyone play a string game with their partners to break the silence. We ended up talking and laughing,” she said.

“So after school I asked her for her number, and she told me no, so I would ask every day we got in that class,” he said.

“He kept trying every day, but I still said no,” she said.

“Homecoming was coming up, so I asked her would she go with me, and she said yes… She had to give me her number then. So we go and have a great time, and at the end of that night we kiss and that started us off,” he said.

“Time went on while we were still talking, and we were getting a little agitated that we still [were not] official so he said we had to be together before his birthday, or we had to stop... I waited till exactly a week before his birthday and told him yes… We’ve been together ever since,” she said.

I MADE THIS

AND THIS

Love, anon.

loNg disTaNce

shhhh........

7

“I was on vacation and I had just arrived at my hotel. I went to the lobby because that was the only place they had Wi-Fi. As I was sitting there a girl ran down and sat next to me, I decided to make small talk. We instantly hit it off, in no time we were walking around town exploring it together. We spent the next five days spending all day together, but eventually she had to move on with her vacation towards the coast.

“That night I was laying in my bed and I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I got a text from her saying she felt the same.

I then snuck out of my hotel room and got a train to the coast. There we meet up one last night to say our goodbyes on the beach. I snuck back early the next morning without my parents even noticing.

“To this day I haven’t met someone as amazing as her.”

“

[We met] through a camp. The least favorite part [of this relationship] is not being able to see her as often, but my favorite part is communication.

We talk a lot; it’s easier.

We’re really committed - I think it’s less drama than other relationships, because I feel there’s miscommunication with other relationships.

But with longdistance relationships, I feel like a lot of those miscommunications can be talked out a lot easier.

“

The NorThridge reporTer February 16, 2016

AND THIS

huNTer harris, sophomore

ve IS IN THE AIR

a a

Loved o

F

or an would one to they w they were wear had to eat or w was like. But for of sophomores A and Brianna H Jan. 28 was not ju “I put things found out at lun phone with Bria I just burst into her other close announced the that day, and I los Jer’Howard Paig On a bright, day that sat ri end of a winte students sitting to catch wind o vehicle collision Loop through so

paper for friend

ones remember life and legacy of sophomore Ariel Backstrom

ny old day, it d be difficult for to recount what were doing, what ring, what they what the weather r the loved ones Ariel Backstrom Hyche, Thursday, just any old day. s together and nch. I was on the anna’s mom and o tears alongside e friends. They passenger later st it,” sophomore ge said. sunny January ight at the tail ter warm front, in class began of a fatal threen on Rice Mine social media and

breaking news reports. It was later revealed that one of the cars was a 2004 Mazda 6, the same car that Hyche picked up Backstrom in every morning before school.

“They’re the last people I’d ever see something like this happening to,” sophomore and close friend Emmie Barnett said.

7:40 AM: While traveling their normal route, Hyche rounded a curve and “lost control of the wheel,” according to a Tuscaloosa News article published later that day. The car was dislodged into oncoming traffic and suffered a direct impact to the passenger’s side, “leaving both girls unconscious.” Hyche was airlifted to UAB hospital to be treated for multiple fractures in her ribs and pelvis (See page 5).

Backstrom was pronounced

IN

dead just nine days before her 16th birthday.

“Whenever we hear about tragedies in the news, we never think it’s going to be about someone so close to us - until it is. Realizing that is just about the worst feeling in the world. I read the texts and the news reports probably 20-plus times, but I still didn’t think it was right,” sophomore and close friend Nour Akl said. “I thought it was just a coincidence and that I was going to see Ariel and Brianna in the halls after class. No amount of guidance counselors or pamphlets really prepare you for the loss of such a beautiful soul and friend.”

Barnett said she wished others would understand that closure is something that does not come quickly or easily.

“Grief can hit you at the most

inappropriate or inconvenient times,” she said.

For Paige, losing his friend is an everyday battle.

“It is still a struggle,” he said.

“A piece of my heart was taken away. There are days where I want to cry, but I know Ariel wouldn’t want me to. I tell myself that she’s here with me everyday, and I know she is. She understood me more than anyone... I really miss her.”

Though hurt and grieving alongside them, Akl urges her friends to keep their heads up.

“I don’t know man,” she said.

“It really hurts without her here, and I miss her ten minute long snapchat stories every morning.

But I know she’s happier where she is... Ariel was quite literally the life of the party and I know for a fact that she wouldn’t want us sad for her, since she’s up there

WRITING...

“One day I brought up to her that I was going to start taking baton twirling lessons and she was all like, ‘Cool, me too! Where are you going to take from?’”

Wilkinson said. “And it turned out that our moms had signed us up with the same instructor.”

By their freshman year of high school, the two would join Northridge’s majorette line, joined at the hip and even closer than ever.

A photograph taken a year later shows the two friends on the field together, side by side with their batons mid-toss, frozen in time and reflecting off of the Friday night sky. Backstrom quickly posted the photo, captioning it, “And in that moment, we were infinite.”

“Ariel.. she could make anyone laugh at any time,” Wilkinson said. “She pushed me and many others to strive and make bigger and better accomplishments in our lives. She was a great role model. She was kind to everyone, was very intelligent and had confidence. And we can’t forget she always slayed.”

Barnett said that she finds it easier to cope when she “focuses on what was instead of what could’ve been.”

It was just a normal, hot, muggy day, and Barnett, Paige and Wilkinson decided to cool off with Backstrom in her neighborhood pool, where the gymnast-turned-majorette tasked Barnett with recording what she had been practicing all summer.

Backstrom flipped into the water with calculated precision, flexing her legs into perfect form. She was always camera-ready, but what happened later was not so graceful, Barnett said.

“When we tried to leave, the gates locked us in… I can see her now trying to jump them.... And then she got stuck! I remember her yelling...” she said, laughing.

“When we were finally able to escape and go back to her house, we tried to get Chinese food delivered. But the bill was 80 dollars, so Ariel screamed and hung up.”

Paige shared a similar memory of a not-so-agile Backstrom, a girl whose “goofy, fun-loving” spirit had quickly made her “become his whole world” despite the short amount of time that he knew her.

“My favorite memory of Ariel was when we were at [senior, close friend and majorette Sarah Stephens’] old house, and we were going to the creek behind there,” he said. “And like, we had no way of crossing over but by walking on a log…”

One might guess what happened next.

“And so Ariel was trying to walk over it, and she thought things were going good... And then she fell on the log and was like ‘OH MY GOSH!!!’”

Paige stifled back a laugh, but he couldn’t hold it in.

“And I fell to the ground laughing, and I was like ‘Nope!

I’m not going over the log. I’m just going to walk through the water.’”

Senior and former majorette Dajah Benson agreed that Backstrom was indeed “very goofy,” but she was also “unique, smart and selfless.”

“Ariel didn’t have a judgmental bone in her. I could always talk to her about anything,” she said.

“Even if she was having a bad day, she always put on a brave face…

She had a way of bringing people

together.”

And that’s exactly what brought Backstrom and Hyche together; their shared sense of humor and compassion for others is something that their friends said will live on through Backstrom’s legacy. “[Brianna and Ariel] are both so, so funny, so I’m sure [when they were] together it was a riot,” Barnett said.

Paige described Hyche as his “twin,” explaining that the two are often mistaken for siblings.

“My favorite memory of Brianna was when we were at play rehearsal and this girl was supposed to read the line, ‘When I look in the mirror, I don’t see beauty at all.’ But instead she said, ‘When I look in the mirror, I don’t see booty at all.’ We fell out laughing!” he said, his cheeks sore from chuckling.

Paige said that their independent spirits made Hyche and Backstrom friends that he could lean on.

“Brianna is a strong, intelligent young woman and she taught me how to never let anyone take away who I am... Ariel lived a beautiful, strong life… she taught me to appreciate the small things and the people around us… she told me my purpose here is something special, so I will find it and live by it,” he said. “Every day I live, it’s for these two special girls in my life. I love them with all my heart and will do anything for them.

“Live life while you still have it people. Because every time you breathe, someone is taking their last breath. So stop hating each other and learn to love! Can we be more like Brianna? Can we live more like Ariel? Yes we can

people. Never forget that.”

Stephanie Backstrom, Ariel’s mother, will most certainly never forget that. The outpouring of love from Backstrom’s friends and classmates, along with the memories that they hold so dearly, have shown her what it means to live like her daughter.

“That’s what me and her father are trying to do right now,” she said. “We’re trying our best to live like Ariel.”

S

tephanie stood in the family room, now dotted with flower bouquets from local bands, schools, churches and the like, and smiled as she remembered the girl that they were for.

There are no words, Stephanie said, that could describe how she felt about her daughter. There was nothing, no novel she could write, that could ever explain the connection, the relationship that she had with her “best friend” and her “one true love.”

But a single word written on

Backstrom’s mirror did the talking for her. “...Ariel,” she found her words, “...Ariel was flawless... I feel so blessed to have been honored by God for the last 15 years with an angel. I miss her with all my heart.

She brought me joy every day.

Nothing will ever replace the love, the friendship, and the care that she showed for me every day. I’m so happy to know that she is in a much better place…. I will always miss her from the bottom of my heart.”

On Thursday, Jan. 28, my classmates, friends and I were shaken by the death of one of my close friends Ariel Backstrom. The newspaper was approaching deadline, but we knew Ariel deserved a proper tribute. This story, amidst story after story of tragedy and heartbreak, was by far the most difficult for me to write. While we were and still are shaken and grieving and grappling to regain focus, my co-writer and I knew that we were the only staff members fit for the job. Like in the McNabb story (pages 18-19), we wanted to focus on the life that Ariel lived and the legacy she left. Personally close to Backstrom’s mother, I knew that Stephanie Backstrom would have a hard time speaking about her daughter. So, I focused on her friends and all the vivid memories they shared with her, leaving the end of the story - the most important part - for her mother to share her final thoughts.

The family had approached me previously to design a thank you letter (left), and I posted it on our Facebook accounts as well as placed it on the page. I don’t normally design the front page, but I took the editor-in-chief ’s reigns this time, setting the story against a glittery purple backdrop - her favorite color - and titling it with the one word that epitomized my best friend, car ride buddy and dance partner: flawless.

Words cannot express the level of appreciation from Ariel’s friends and family for our work. And that - that feeling - is why I live for her and continue to pursue my dream of becoming a journalist.

... AND IN

MULTIMEDIA

The Really Hip Adventures of Go Go Girl

FUTURE PLANS Currently, I am introducing some promising young staff members to the world of multimedia. In my next project, I plan to work with them (even if it continues after I graduate) in producing a series of stories, photographs and videos surrounding a local tech school teacher’s efforts to convince city leaders to fund the building of a backlot at Tuscaloosa Career and Technology Academy. Located in a high-poverty area, the backlot would attract filmmakers as one of few backlots in the South and will generate an immense amount of revenue for the area. Run entirely by students, the backlot would require skills from all courses taught at the Academy. I initially reached out to the teacher who had this vision, who was recommended by my former advisor to speak with me, and I plan to document and hopefully make her dream a reality through a series of interviews with local filmmakers, actors and the local government. This project will also double as a major learning experience for the younger staff members and provide them with something to continue as the years go on, just like the Central Exchange Program.

ON MAR. 12,

I WAS ACCEPTED INTO THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA HONORS COLLEGE’S UNIVERSITY FELLOWS EXPERIENCE PROGRAM. THIS PROGRAM SELECTS 30 OUT OF APPROXIMATELY 1000 APPLICANTS AFTER A SERIES OF INTERVIEWS, PROMISING FOUR YEARS OF COMMUNITY SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES AND INTERNSHIPS IN STUDENTS’ RESPECTIVE FIELDS. I AM ELATED TO SAY THAT I WILL PURSUE A MAJOR IN JOURNALISM AS A UNIVERSITY FELLOW, ALONG WITH A MINOR IN LIBERAL ARTS AS WELL AS A MINOR IN SOCIAL INNOVATION AND LEADERSHIP. I AM A FIRM BELIEVER IN BUILDING UP A STRONG BASE OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE AND EXPANDING MY HORIZONS, BECAUSE A WRITER CAN ONLY WRITE AS WELL AS THEIR EXPERIENCE LETS THEM. WITH THIS PROGRAM, I WILL HAVE THE TOOLS I NEED TO PROMOTE MEDIA LITERACY AND FIGHT FOR AUTHENTIC JOURNALISM. WITH RELENTLESS REZONING ON BEHALF OF THE CITY BOARD, NORTHRIDGE’S PROGRAMS WILL BE MISSING SOME BRIGHT AND CREATIVE STUDENTS THESE NEXT FEW YEARS. OUR NEWSPAPER BEING ONE OF THOSE PROGRAMS, IT IS LIKELY THAT THEY WILL NEED A HELPING HAND. AS A FELLOW, I HAVE PLANS TO START A MEDIA LITERACY INITIATIVE IN THE CITY SCHOOLS SYSTEM. STARTING WITH NORTHRIDGE AND EXPANDING TO BRYANT AND CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLS, I PLAN TO PROVIDE MUCH-NEEDED RESOURCES FOR JOURNALISM PROGRAMS THAT ARE EITHER NONEXISTENT OR ARE EXTREMELY LOW ON FUNDS. I WILL DEVOTE MY TIME, MY EXPERIENCE AND MY RESOURCES TO BUILD JOURNALISM/MULTIMEDIA PROGRAMS AND PREPARE THEM FOR THE CHANGING WORLD OF MEDIA.