Kudos to our northern neighbors! In "Homeschooled journalist starts petition to change school policy" , the Times-Herald of Newnan, Georgia reports that Miranda Sain, editor of The Eluminatus Courant, a newspaper published by her homeschool cooperative, started a petition drive to urge the Coweta County Board of Education to broaden its student publication policy.
According to the Times-Herald,"...Sain was energized by the experiences of fellow student journalist Caitlyn Van Orden, who held a First Amendment Rally in the fall when the East Coweta High School newspaper was impounded by Principal Derek Pitts.
"Van Orden ultimately stepped down as editor of Smoke Signals rather than serve as editor of what she felt would be a much-diminished publication.
"Several members of the Eluminatus staff attended the First Amendment Rally on the Court Square in downtown Newnan put together by Van Orden. The two feisty female editors are fans of each other's work, and Van Orden, a senior who also works as an intern at The Times-Herald, wrote a guest column that is in the current issue of the homeschool paper.
""Student journalists have to stand together," Sain said.
"Now, the homeschooled editor is on a crusade. She wants to gather 1,000 verifiable signatures from Coweta County residents to present to the school board, urging a policy that gives students the opportunity to write serious journalism rather than simple, happy fluff."
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Read the entire story at http://content.times-herald.com/307491438710984.bsp
You can also read Sain's letter to the editor at the Citizen.com: http://www.thecitizen.com/~citizen0/node/26606
Yay for serious journalism, and young people who have the courage and a deep sense of civic engagement to seek it.
PHF
3 comments:
Hey! I stumbled upon your blog as I was doing some further research on other publication policies. I was so very pleased to see that we have others backing our cause! The support is so encouraging. Thank you so much for posting our story!
-Miranda Sain
Eluminatus Courant Editor
msain1@student.gsu.edu
Glad to help! Can you update us?
PHF
Sure thing! We held a rally on May 10th on Newnan's downtown square. We stood on the square for four hours holding signs and getting signatures.
We got a mixed reaction from the drivers that passed. Some stopped to sign our petition or honked their horns in support. Others rolled down their windows and yelled degrading remarks or profanities. I think the one that made me laugh was directed to one of my staff members. A man yelled at her to go put her Pampers back on and take a nap.
We collected 63 signatures total which brings our grand total to around 250. As you see, we are still a long ways from the 1000 goal, but we refuse to stop. We are in the beginning stage of planning another petition drive rally in mid-June.
Caitlyn was also awarded the honor of being named the 2008 Georgia Champion Journalist by the Georgia Scholastic Press Association. She interns at the Newnan Times-Herald now.
She will be graduating this Saturday. I will be graduating the following Saturday. Even as we will be attending college elsewhere we plan to continue the fight together.
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