Staff Editorial: Support needed for student's rights
About: Because of the seriousness and the importance of this editorial about journalistic rights and censorship, I conducted an extreme amount of research for the article. This included digging through and printing our email correspondences with administration to prove the number of times articles were requested for prior review, seeking advice from various sources such as SPLC and professional journalists and researching online to find professional studies to include in the article. (For more on the article and legal problems, see Law & Ethics).
Published: Online at dgnomega.org and in print on March 24, 2016
Story:
Just as an entrepreneurship class teaches students the ins and outs of the business world and an art class equips artists with techniques that will help them create a career out of their talent, a high school journalism program educates students by teaching them the skills that are practiced by professionals. The fundamental principles of journalism aren’t just meant to be taught, they’re meant to be practiced, and practiced without the fear of interference from outside bodies.
This being said, The Omega will never be able to properly inform the school community, give a voice to students, or practice sound journalism with the increasing burden of prior review and censorship that has occurred in recent months.
The Supreme Court case that limits the rights of student press, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, is confusing to say the least. The language of the decision leaves a lot of things open to interpretation and has been the heart of The Omega’s recent problems. This confusion over what rights administrators have is what has most likely led to the dramatic increase of journalistic restraint from administrators across the nation.
Recently proposed Illinois House bill 5902, also known as the Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act, would improve this situation. Not only does this bill protect students’ rights to exercise freedom of speech and press, it also secures for students the right to determine what is the content of the publication.
All that we have to say about this bill is this: it’s about time.
Even under the Hazelwood standard, some administrators show more regard for students’ expression rights than others. Just because administrators have the right to invoke prior review, doesn’t mean they necessarily should.
Excessive administrative involvement in the editorial process creates both an adversarial relationship between the student press and administration and self-censorship by the student journalists. Our coverage of school policies and events this year, such as the proposed Master Facility Plan, the different aspects of Red Ribbon Week and more recently the gender-neutral spaces, has received an unprecedented amount of prior review and censorship.
Between the fall of 1999 and spring of 2011, The Omega received a total of three requests for prior review from administration. Last year, six articles were subject to prior review. So far this year, eight articles have been reviewed by administration before being published.
When administrators make changes to school policy articles before they are published, it is a conflict of interest. In the majority of cases, it is against professional journalistic ethics to allow a person or group to preview an article about themselves before it is published. If we aren’t going to allow a sports team or any other person to make changes on an article about themselves, administrators should expect the same.
We have a responsibility to readers to practice sound journalism by writing truthfully about topics that are important to our audience: the student body.
Earlier this month, one of our editors-in-chief emailed a two-question survey asking about the student body’s views regarding proposed gender-neutral spaces. Finding two minor errors in the survey (slightly misleading wording of one of the questions and a problem with how the survey was set up that allowed users to send multiple responses and skew results), the editor planned on re-sending an updated version but was told by administrators to refrain from doing so because of a pending investigation into whether or not the survey violated board policy 7.15.
Due to the fact that we did not receive an explanation for the restraint or a final decision on the investigation until more than a week later, (requiring us to push our publication back more than a week as well) the Omega considered this an act of unlawful censorship. According to administration, the survey was not considered appropriate for all students.
However, the two questions on the survey only included information that was given to The Omega by the administration.
In December, during the review of an article regarding the proposed Master Facility Plan renovations, administration requested for the reporter to change quotes said by a faculty member to ones that diluted the meaning of the original. The Omega contacted outside counsel and fought to publish the original quotes.
The best way for administration to confront problems they might have with a school publication’s content is through letters to the editor and asking for corrections to be published in a later issue. This allows students to still report freely without administrative involvement but still gives the school the ability to voice any legitimate concerns they may have.
Despite all our criticism of administrative involvement, we get where they are coming from. There is an understandable anxiety that comes with the possibility of a student newspaper embarrassing a school or administrator, but ultimately, there has got to be a little faith that student journalists will follow their own high ethical standards.
Having a relationship with administration where there is a constant fear of unnecessary involvement leads student journalists to self-censor themselves, unconsciously taking away some of their own freedom of speech because of the fear of administrative backlash. But if the student press doesn’t say it, who else will?
According to a survey conducted by the Brookings Institution, a mere 1.4 percent of news media coverage is devoted to education. If student journalists do not cover decisions and policy changes throughout the district, these important topics risk going unreported, also risking the possibility that the sole information about said topics is uneducated online gossip.
There is a need in every school for a well-educated student press to set the record straight and be able to do legitimate reporting, have a reasoned opinion, and promote a more informed community. We have a crucial role in the marketplace of ideas and censoring does nobody any favors.
In light of this, the Omega has decided that it is our obligation as journalists to inform our readers when these acts of prior review occur. As of this issue, all articles that have gone through the prior review process will be printed with an editor’s note, noting this fact.
The Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act isn’t just something that we want, it is something that we need. In order for our rights to be secured and to do the best reporting possible, censorship cannot be a thing. As high school students negatively affected by acts of prior review and censorship, we know that our rights have been compromised.
We need them back.
Just as an entrepreneurship class teaches students the ins and outs of the business world and an art class equips artists with techniques that will help them create a career out of their talent, a high school journalism program educates students by teaching them the skills that are practiced by professionals. The fundamental principles of journalism aren’t just meant to be taught, they’re meant to be practiced, and practiced without the fear of interference from outside bodies.
This being said, The Omega will never be able to properly inform the school community, give a voice to students, or practice sound journalism with the increasing burden of prior review and censorship that has occurred in recent months.
The Supreme Court case that limits the rights of student press, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, is confusing to say the least. The language of the decision leaves a lot of things open to interpretation and has been the heart of The Omega’s recent problems. This confusion over what rights administrators have is what has most likely led to the dramatic increase of journalistic restraint from administrators across the nation.
Recently proposed Illinois House bill 5902, also known as the Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act, would improve this situation. Not only does this bill protect students’ rights to exercise freedom of speech and press, it also secures for students the right to determine what is the content of the publication.
All that we have to say about this bill is this: it’s about time.
Even under the Hazelwood standard, some administrators show more regard for students’ expression rights than others. Just because administrators have the right to invoke prior review, doesn’t mean they necessarily should.
Excessive administrative involvement in the editorial process creates both an adversarial relationship between the student press and administration and self-censorship by the student journalists. Our coverage of school policies and events this year, such as the proposed Master Facility Plan, the different aspects of Red Ribbon Week and more recently the gender-neutral spaces, has received an unprecedented amount of prior review and censorship.
Between the fall of 1999 and spring of 2011, The Omega received a total of three requests for prior review from administration. Last year, six articles were subject to prior review. So far this year, eight articles have been reviewed by administration before being published.
When administrators make changes to school policy articles before they are published, it is a conflict of interest. In the majority of cases, it is against professional journalistic ethics to allow a person or group to preview an article about themselves before it is published. If we aren’t going to allow a sports team or any other person to make changes on an article about themselves, administrators should expect the same.
We have a responsibility to readers to practice sound journalism by writing truthfully about topics that are important to our audience: the student body.
Earlier this month, one of our editors-in-chief emailed a two-question survey asking about the student body’s views regarding proposed gender-neutral spaces. Finding two minor errors in the survey (slightly misleading wording of one of the questions and a problem with how the survey was set up that allowed users to send multiple responses and skew results), the editor planned on re-sending an updated version but was told by administrators to refrain from doing so because of a pending investigation into whether or not the survey violated board policy 7.15.
Due to the fact that we did not receive an explanation for the restraint or a final decision on the investigation until more than a week later, (requiring us to push our publication back more than a week as well) the Omega considered this an act of unlawful censorship. According to administration, the survey was not considered appropriate for all students.
However, the two questions on the survey only included information that was given to The Omega by the administration.
In December, during the review of an article regarding the proposed Master Facility Plan renovations, administration requested for the reporter to change quotes said by a faculty member to ones that diluted the meaning of the original. The Omega contacted outside counsel and fought to publish the original quotes.
The best way for administration to confront problems they might have with a school publication’s content is through letters to the editor and asking for corrections to be published in a later issue. This allows students to still report freely without administrative involvement but still gives the school the ability to voice any legitimate concerns they may have.
Despite all our criticism of administrative involvement, we get where they are coming from. There is an understandable anxiety that comes with the possibility of a student newspaper embarrassing a school or administrator, but ultimately, there has got to be a little faith that student journalists will follow their own high ethical standards.
Having a relationship with administration where there is a constant fear of unnecessary involvement leads student journalists to self-censor themselves, unconsciously taking away some of their own freedom of speech because of the fear of administrative backlash. But if the student press doesn’t say it, who else will?
According to a survey conducted by the Brookings Institution, a mere 1.4 percent of news media coverage is devoted to education. If student journalists do not cover decisions and policy changes throughout the district, these important topics risk going unreported, also risking the possibility that the sole information about said topics is uneducated online gossip.
There is a need in every school for a well-educated student press to set the record straight and be able to do legitimate reporting, have a reasoned opinion, and promote a more informed community. We have a crucial role in the marketplace of ideas and censoring does nobody any favors.
In light of this, the Omega has decided that it is our obligation as journalists to inform our readers when these acts of prior review occur. As of this issue, all articles that have gone through the prior review process will be printed with an editor’s note, noting this fact.
The Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act isn’t just something that we want, it is something that we need. In order for our rights to be secured and to do the best reporting possible, censorship cannot be a thing. As high school students negatively affected by acts of prior review and censorship, we know that our rights have been compromised.
We need them back.
BURNING UP: 2017-18 calendar raises heat questions
About: For this article, I contacted all of the schools in the conference to get comparative data, incorporated facts from a professional study and conducted numerous interviews to show all viewpoints. I interview the Harvard researched that I cited but, unfortunately, the time of the interview did not give me enough time to work the quotes into my article before the deadline. I also submitted FOIA requests to each school in the conference to get the comparative data. To see the fact box containing the data I collected from schools in the conference, click here.
Published: Online at dgnomega.org and in print on Nov. 9, 2016
Story:
When Nihal Isaac, mother of freshman Noah Isaac and senior Jade Isaac, spoke at the District 99 School Board meeting last year on Feb. 1, she had one goal: relieve her daughter’s winter break stress by moving final exams before break.
“Over the past three years, I have witnessed firsthand what having the semester end after winter break does to students,” Isaac said. “My daughter, Jade, spends anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of her winter break completing study guide packets for her classes in preparation for finals.”
District 99 began work last December to create an early start calendar for this upcoming school year. The result led to a five day earlier 2017-2018 calendar that bumps finals before break and cuts the school stress out of the holiday season.
However, less days in the generally mild temperatures of early June mean more days in the heat of August. Only 51% of D99 classrooms have air conditioning.
A recent Harvard study suggests that student performance lowers with the increase of heat, raising concerns of how heat will impact student performance and school function during first months of school.
The study, conducted by Harvard University PHD student Jisung Park, concluded that students who took the exam on a 90-degree day scored on average 4.5% lower than students who took the test on a 72-degree day. Also the study showed only five additional 80-degree days saw a reduced performance of seven percent of a standard deviation.
According to the website Weather Underground, this past August and September, 50% of the days hit heat indexes of 80 degrees or higher, with the average at 82.5 degrees. This means that if students had started on Aug. 18 this year, as they will next year, 22 out of the 44 days from then until the end of September would have been hot enough to decrease student performance.
The Master Facility Plan, a facility improvement plan for District 99 schools, involves complete air conditioning for both DGN and DGS. However, the district has yet to choose a finalized plan or a set year for the improvements to take place. According to assistant principal Ken Sorensen, for the time being, the school will use fans and ventilation to cool the building.
According to principal Janice Schwarze, heat factored into the calendar decision and the district considered data from other districts who switched to early start calendars without air conditioning.
“Really in the end what we found was that there were few concerns, the heat being one of them, but that other schools had managed to overcome them and were happy that they did. Other schools have been on an early start calendar and not all of them had air conditioning,” Schwarze said.
Teachers’ union vice president Lois Graham questions how the lack of air conditioning will affect the school with the earlier start date.
“It’s just unacceptable for students and it’s unacceptable for faculty and staff … Almost all the other schools in the area have air conditioning and considering this is a district with only two buildings, [the district needs to] find a way to take care of it,” Graham said.
Junior Evie Brindl believes that, while the finals after break are acceptable, the heat is not.
“On hot days, it’s hard for me to stay concentrated on my work when I keep sticking to my desk. I feel really gross and distracted,” Brindl said.
Schwarze, along with multiple other faculty and staff, were part of a calendar committee that reviewed data and multiple versions of the schedule before coming to a final draft.
“This was a conversation that occurred with a lot of people over a long period of time,” principal Janice Schwarze said. “While students might be uncomfortable for those few days, the tradeoff of having those two weeks where they are not having to worry, we felt, was worth the trade off.”
In preparation for the board meeting last February, Isaac researched for information regarding the heat during mid August. She considered this information in her argument to the board.
“I thought it was very important for students to have a mental break during the two weeks of winter break to decompress and recharge,” Isaac said. “… We have had hotter days than [those in August] in September. Weather is unpredictable, yet the benefits to our students of having an early start calendar are very predictable and tangible.”
When Nihal Isaac, mother of freshman Noah Isaac and senior Jade Isaac, spoke at the District 99 School Board meeting last year on Feb. 1, she had one goal: relieve her daughter’s winter break stress by moving final exams before break.
“Over the past three years, I have witnessed firsthand what having the semester end after winter break does to students,” Isaac said. “My daughter, Jade, spends anywhere from one-half to two-thirds of her winter break completing study guide packets for her classes in preparation for finals.”
District 99 began work last December to create an early start calendar for this upcoming school year. The result led to a five day earlier 2017-2018 calendar that bumps finals before break and cuts the school stress out of the holiday season.
However, less days in the generally mild temperatures of early June mean more days in the heat of August. Only 51% of D99 classrooms have air conditioning.
A recent Harvard study suggests that student performance lowers with the increase of heat, raising concerns of how heat will impact student performance and school function during first months of school.
The study, conducted by Harvard University PHD student Jisung Park, concluded that students who took the exam on a 90-degree day scored on average 4.5% lower than students who took the test on a 72-degree day. Also the study showed only five additional 80-degree days saw a reduced performance of seven percent of a standard deviation.
According to the website Weather Underground, this past August and September, 50% of the days hit heat indexes of 80 degrees or higher, with the average at 82.5 degrees. This means that if students had started on Aug. 18 this year, as they will next year, 22 out of the 44 days from then until the end of September would have been hot enough to decrease student performance.
The Master Facility Plan, a facility improvement plan for District 99 schools, involves complete air conditioning for both DGN and DGS. However, the district has yet to choose a finalized plan or a set year for the improvements to take place. According to assistant principal Ken Sorensen, for the time being, the school will use fans and ventilation to cool the building.
According to principal Janice Schwarze, heat factored into the calendar decision and the district considered data from other districts who switched to early start calendars without air conditioning.
“Really in the end what we found was that there were few concerns, the heat being one of them, but that other schools had managed to overcome them and were happy that they did. Other schools have been on an early start calendar and not all of them had air conditioning,” Schwarze said.
Teachers’ union vice president Lois Graham questions how the lack of air conditioning will affect the school with the earlier start date.
“It’s just unacceptable for students and it’s unacceptable for faculty and staff … Almost all the other schools in the area have air conditioning and considering this is a district with only two buildings, [the district needs to] find a way to take care of it,” Graham said.
Junior Evie Brindl believes that, while the finals after break are acceptable, the heat is not.
“On hot days, it’s hard for me to stay concentrated on my work when I keep sticking to my desk. I feel really gross and distracted,” Brindl said.
Schwarze, along with multiple other faculty and staff, were part of a calendar committee that reviewed data and multiple versions of the schedule before coming to a final draft.
“This was a conversation that occurred with a lot of people over a long period of time,” principal Janice Schwarze said. “While students might be uncomfortable for those few days, the tradeoff of having those two weeks where they are not having to worry, we felt, was worth the trade off.”
In preparation for the board meeting last February, Isaac researched for information regarding the heat during mid August. She considered this information in her argument to the board.
“I thought it was very important for students to have a mental break during the two weeks of winter break to decompress and recharge,” Isaac said. “… We have had hotter days than [those in August] in September. Weather is unpredictable, yet the benefits to our students of having an early start calendar are very predictable and tangible.”
Author speaks to D99 schools about alcohol
About: For this article about a Red Ribbon Week speaker at my school, I used data from a school-wide survey distributed every other year named the Illinois Youth Survey. After weeks of trying to get an administrator to give me the survey results, I submitted a FOIA request for the information. Results from this survey are used by the school on posters about drugs and alcohol during Red Ribbon Week. The results for the survey were over 100 pages long and I had to sift through them to find information I could use for the article. I used data from the Illinois Youth Survey along with interviews from a variety of sources and quotes from the author's book to create my article.
Published: Online at dgnomega.org and in print on Nov. 5, 2015
Story:
Author of New York Times best-selling memoir Smashed, Koren Zailckas, spoke to DGN on Oct. 16 at this year’s Red Ribbon Week assembly in the Clarence Johnson auditorium. This double second period assembly was only one component in the school’s broader drug and alcohol prevention program.
Zailckas’ book chronicles the events of her decade-long struggle with alcohol, which began at age 14 and continued until 23. Almost 10 years after she began drinking, Zailckas decided tell her side of the binge-drinking phenomenon that is spreading amongst today’s youth, especially young women.
“At 23, I was just beginning to quit drinking and beginning to reflect on how my drinking had been really an expression of my unhappiness and my lack of confidence,” Zailckas said. “I really published Smashed because I wanted to offer the younger women’s perspective. The only people who were talking about why girls like myself were drinking were [college professors] who had been removed from the college drinking scene for quite a while.”
Recently out of college, sober, and living in Manhattan, Zailckas couldn’t shake one specific drunken memory from her mind of a time when she almost died and got her stomach pumped at the age of 16. This memory that she hadn’t thought about in years eventually became a chapter in what is now her published memoir.
“We liked that she had a similar experience to our students,” student assistance coordinator Keith Bullock said. “She had a suburban upbringing and she also primarily abused alcohol in high school and in college. It wasn’t so much that her substance abuse progressed to something extreme like intravenous drug use, so we thought that her experience would resonate more with our students if they themselves have experimented [with alcohol] or have a friend or a parent who struggles with alcoholism.”
According to DGN’s results from the Illinois Youth Survey in 2014 (a self-report survey that gathers information on a wide variety of health and social topics) an average of 18% of students binge drink (consume five or more drinks in a row) like Zailckas did, which is close to the state average of 18.25% and the Dupage county average of 17.5%*. Students who reported drinking in the last 30 days used alcohol more than any other substance, with types of alcohol like beer (from bottles or cans) and liquor (vodka, whiskey, etc.) reported as the most commonly used.
The IYS is a self-report survey that gathers information on a wide variety of health and social topics that schools distribute every two years. Although schools are not required to administer the survey, some schools, including DGN, give out the survey to be able to receive school-specific results.
One way that the district uses the IYS results is for the “most teens” marketing campaign. According to the Student Assistance page on both schools’ websites, the campaign emphasizes evidence that proves that most students are not using substances, purposefully challenging the assumption that “everyone is doing it” and uses IYS results to support their claims.
Numerous posters and infographics throughout the school and online present IYS statistics using a social norms approach. According to the National Social Norms Institute, this approach utilizes data to combat misperceptions regarding how many people areactually using substances.
Operation Snowball, a leadership program that focuses on drug and alcohol prevention, shares values with DGN’s “most teens” campaign. The 2015 fall Snowball directors helped out with Zailckas’ presentation by introducing her and facilitating a short question and answer session after her presentation.
“The name Operation Snowball comes from the idea of a snowball effect; as one person adopts a certain lifestyle, it leads to more people adopting that same lifestyle,” Snowball director senior Maria Derrig said. “The different parts of RRW do just that. Everything students see around school that tie into ‘most teens’ or PBIS lessons is to promote healthy lifestyles.”
Throughout the years that DGN has held events for Red Ribbon Week, numerous speakers have come in to talk to students about their experiences with substance abuse. In 2013, former NBA player Chris Herren spoke to the school about his experience with hard drugs. This year, Zailckas had a more intimate presentation in the auditorium, rather than the main gym like Herren.
“My overall reaction to Koren’s presentation was that she seemed very relatable. Her story seemed very practical and wasn’t very extreme,” Snowball director senior Ben Goodell said. “In the past, we’ve had speakers with pretty amazing stories. These stories were effective, but it is also good to look at the issue from another point of view. I felt like the story she shared could easily happen to many people.”
According to book club member freshman Marion Deal, who read Smashed, Zailckas’ presentation lacked depth, which may have led to some students’ negative reaction to the presentation.
“She brushed off some hideous events with an almost cavalier attitude, and seemed to be lacking a comprehension of just how impactful her experiences were. I believe that, though she had the experience necessary to present at Red Ribbon Week, she didn’t have the depth of hindsight and self-clarity that was also needed,” Deal said.
Moving forward, Bullock is looking for other effective ways of sharing the IYS information to serve the overall purpose of helping teens make their own healthy choices.
*IYS averages were calculated using a holistic approach, giving each percent the same weight in the average. DGN numbers were comprised of all grade levels, while county and state numbers were based solely on 10 and 12 grade averages, due to the fact that those two grades were required by the survey provider.
Author of New York Times best-selling memoir Smashed, Koren Zailckas, spoke to DGN on Oct. 16 at this year’s Red Ribbon Week assembly in the Clarence Johnson auditorium. This double second period assembly was only one component in the school’s broader drug and alcohol prevention program.
Zailckas’ book chronicles the events of her decade-long struggle with alcohol, which began at age 14 and continued until 23. Almost 10 years after she began drinking, Zailckas decided tell her side of the binge-drinking phenomenon that is spreading amongst today’s youth, especially young women.
“At 23, I was just beginning to quit drinking and beginning to reflect on how my drinking had been really an expression of my unhappiness and my lack of confidence,” Zailckas said. “I really published Smashed because I wanted to offer the younger women’s perspective. The only people who were talking about why girls like myself were drinking were [college professors] who had been removed from the college drinking scene for quite a while.”
Recently out of college, sober, and living in Manhattan, Zailckas couldn’t shake one specific drunken memory from her mind of a time when she almost died and got her stomach pumped at the age of 16. This memory that she hadn’t thought about in years eventually became a chapter in what is now her published memoir.
“We liked that she had a similar experience to our students,” student assistance coordinator Keith Bullock said. “She had a suburban upbringing and she also primarily abused alcohol in high school and in college. It wasn’t so much that her substance abuse progressed to something extreme like intravenous drug use, so we thought that her experience would resonate more with our students if they themselves have experimented [with alcohol] or have a friend or a parent who struggles with alcoholism.”
According to DGN’s results from the Illinois Youth Survey in 2014 (a self-report survey that gathers information on a wide variety of health and social topics) an average of 18% of students binge drink (consume five or more drinks in a row) like Zailckas did, which is close to the state average of 18.25% and the Dupage county average of 17.5%*. Students who reported drinking in the last 30 days used alcohol more than any other substance, with types of alcohol like beer (from bottles or cans) and liquor (vodka, whiskey, etc.) reported as the most commonly used.
The IYS is a self-report survey that gathers information on a wide variety of health and social topics that schools distribute every two years. Although schools are not required to administer the survey, some schools, including DGN, give out the survey to be able to receive school-specific results.
One way that the district uses the IYS results is for the “most teens” marketing campaign. According to the Student Assistance page on both schools’ websites, the campaign emphasizes evidence that proves that most students are not using substances, purposefully challenging the assumption that “everyone is doing it” and uses IYS results to support their claims.
Numerous posters and infographics throughout the school and online present IYS statistics using a social norms approach. According to the National Social Norms Institute, this approach utilizes data to combat misperceptions regarding how many people areactually using substances.
Operation Snowball, a leadership program that focuses on drug and alcohol prevention, shares values with DGN’s “most teens” campaign. The 2015 fall Snowball directors helped out with Zailckas’ presentation by introducing her and facilitating a short question and answer session after her presentation.
“The name Operation Snowball comes from the idea of a snowball effect; as one person adopts a certain lifestyle, it leads to more people adopting that same lifestyle,” Snowball director senior Maria Derrig said. “The different parts of RRW do just that. Everything students see around school that tie into ‘most teens’ or PBIS lessons is to promote healthy lifestyles.”
Throughout the years that DGN has held events for Red Ribbon Week, numerous speakers have come in to talk to students about their experiences with substance abuse. In 2013, former NBA player Chris Herren spoke to the school about his experience with hard drugs. This year, Zailckas had a more intimate presentation in the auditorium, rather than the main gym like Herren.
“My overall reaction to Koren’s presentation was that she seemed very relatable. Her story seemed very practical and wasn’t very extreme,” Snowball director senior Ben Goodell said. “In the past, we’ve had speakers with pretty amazing stories. These stories were effective, but it is also good to look at the issue from another point of view. I felt like the story she shared could easily happen to many people.”
According to book club member freshman Marion Deal, who read Smashed, Zailckas’ presentation lacked depth, which may have led to some students’ negative reaction to the presentation.
“She brushed off some hideous events with an almost cavalier attitude, and seemed to be lacking a comprehension of just how impactful her experiences were. I believe that, though she had the experience necessary to present at Red Ribbon Week, she didn’t have the depth of hindsight and self-clarity that was also needed,” Deal said.
Moving forward, Bullock is looking for other effective ways of sharing the IYS information to serve the overall purpose of helping teens make their own healthy choices.
*IYS averages were calculated using a holistic approach, giving each percent the same weight in the average. DGN numbers were comprised of all grade levels, while county and state numbers were based solely on 10 and 12 grade averages, due to the fact that those two grades were required by the survey provider.
