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Perspective Serving South Carolina scholastic journalists

since 1936

SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATIONWinter 2011

DATELINE2011

February 25SCSPA Scholarships

deadline

March 4-6SIPA Convention and

Competition

March 11Newspaper evaluation,

broadcast evaulation and broadcast individual

competition received in office deadline

March 15ESNA deadline

March 22SCSPA officer nominations

and Adviser of the Year, Scroggins and

Most Improved Awards deadline

April 1SCSPA Spring Conference

earlybird registration deadline

April 8SCSPA Photography

Contest deadline

May 2SCSPA Spring Conference at the USC Russell House

May 12Carolina Journalism

Institute earlybird registration deadline

June 8-12Carolina Journalism

Institute

See the SCSPA website (scspa.sc.edu) for a

detailed master calendar.

Theysayasyougetolder,themoreyoustarttoslowdowninlife.However,asSCSPApreparestocelebrateits75thbirthdaythisyear,scholasticjournalismcouldnotbemorealive. Throughouttheplanning,JennaEckel,third-yearpublicrelationmajor,hasbeentheSCSPA75thAnniversaryIntern. “Myprimaryinvolvementinplanningthe75thanniversaryhasbeencreatingandmaintaininganinvitationdatabase,”Eckelsaid.“Somemoretasksincludeplanningthehistory,managingmultiplemailingmessagestothoseinthedatabaseandstartingtocreatethebanquetandfallconferenceonOct.17.” Eckelsaidtheanniversarycelebrationcanactasareunionforformerscholasticjournalismstaffs. “I’mreallyexcitedtohavesuchalargedatabasebecauseitgivesstaffstheopportunitytoreuniteattheanniversary,”Eckelsaid,“andallowsoldfriendstocometogetheryearslatertodiscusshowtheyareinvolvingjournalismintheirlivestoday.” FormerSCSPAdirectorBruceKonklesaidtheupcominganniversarywillbebetterthanthe50thanniversarycelebratedin1986. “IalwayshopeeachyearSCSPAenhancesits

75 years and counting!SCSPA plans upcoming anniversary

offeringtomembers,andputtingonanevenbetteranniversarycelebration25yearsafterthe50thgoesalongwiththatwayofthinking,especiallyforaformerdirectoroftheorganization,”Konklesaid.“Everyorganizationshouldalwayswanttostrengthenwhatitdoesforitsmembers.” KonklesaidSCSPAhasmorethanjustagetocelebrate. “Bymyestimate,morethan45,000studentjournalistsandpublicationadvisershaveattendedSCSPAconferencesandworkshopsinColumbiasincetheorganizationmadeUSCitspermanenthomeintheearly1960s,”Konklesaid.“That’squiteanachievement,andthat’ssomethingthatshouldbecelebratedandappreciatedbyallschoolanduniversityfacultymembersandadministration.” Thisyear’sspecialguestspeakerisBobbyHawthorne,authorofThe Radical Write,andwho,formorethan30years,hashelpedstudentjournalistsappreciatetheimportanceofgreatwritinginscholasticpublications. “Hetrulyisnowa‘pioneer’ineverysenseof

Anniversary continued on page 5

Former SCSPA director Bruce Konkle, SCSPA 75th anniversary intern Jenna Eckel, and former Dutch Fork MS yearbook adviser Beth Underwood meet in the School of Journalism to discuss the 75th anniversary and fall conference.

PAGE 2 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

• Director: Karen H. Flowers• Scholastic Press Manager: Leslie Dennis• Perspective Editor: Kelsey D’Amico• Office Assistants: Jenna Eckel, Ashley Gardner Aric Lavender, Jarad Greene, Kelsey D’Amico• USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications Colubmia, SC 29208• Phone: 803.777.6284• Fax: 803.777.4103• E-mail: [email protected]• Website: http://scspa.sc.edu

Student Officers 2010-2011 President: Charmaine McKinley

Vice President: Diana Barahona

Representatives: Broadcast: Ryan Magee, Kristen Soltish Coastal: Ellie Smith, Harrison Weeks Magazine: Morgan Stewart Midlands: Paul Hill, Gaby Ruiz Newspaper: Richard Lipkin, Chris Rosa Piedmont: Coralia Balasca, Emilio Cerra, Claire Huminski Yearbook: Sarah Dickenson, Katie Jones, Jessica Torres

Perspective

Students across the nation work countless hours creating publications for their schools. But when school administrators demand prior review, and then change students’ work, are the publications truly students’ work anymore? Instead of having the ongoing battle between school officials and publication staffs, students need to make sure the work they publish or produce is as accurate, fair and responsible as possible. Gossip stirs daily around every school. Stories can change time and time again and end up far from the truth. Media staffs need to sort through the gossip and get the facts to inform their fellow students. Reporters must be willing to get correct information and present it within reasonable guidelines. Make sure the information in a publication or on a broadcast program is accurate. Check and recheck your sources’ quotes. Verify facts and figures. Be sure to show both sides of a story. Verify the spelling of every source’s name and identify each one accurately. As young reporters, students need to understand there are boundaries of decency and integrity and trust. They

Students need to strive for accuracy, show truthshould be free to operate under the First Amendment, but they have a responsibility to their sources and to their readers not to publish half truths or rumors or defamatory comments. They have to make sure all sides of a story are presented. Knowing what to write and what is better not to write is a big part of being on a school publication. Advisers need to understand and teach their students what is appropriate to publish and what is not, and they need to teach students how to make these decisions for themselves, not have someone make decisions for them. Being on a student-run publication is more than just working to create the final outcome, but becoming an independent, critical-thinking journalist who works diligently to seek the truth and present the truth to readers while staying within the limits of respecting others. Publications run by students who operate under this mandate of responsibility should not have to be under prior review and certainly should not be censored.

-Written by Katie Jones, J.L. Mann HS

ournalismINST I T U TE

a sipa summer workshop

Photo by Kayla Melton, Lugoff-Elgin HS (Lugoff, S.C.)

a sipa summer workshop Are you ready for June 8-12, 2011?University of South Carolina • School of Journalism & Mass Communications

803.777.6284 • www.sc.edu/cmcis/so/cji.html

photographyredesign

desktoponline

advertingadvising

writingbroadcast

journalismyearbook

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 3

ADVISERSTeachers at all stages of their publication advising career will benefit from this class. Those with no or little experience learn from others who have been in the journalism classroom longer, and veterans reconnect and are re-energized by those with less experience. Basics of advertising and business, design, interviewing, writing and editing are combined with staff motivation, team building and grading as well as some work with multi-media. Advisers leave CJI with a new network and support system – the CJI instructor and all the class participants.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ADVERTISINGSend any member of your staff to this class if you think they can help with business. They’ll go home with a plan to finance your staff’s survival while learning salesmanship and ad design, how to create and conduct consumer surveys and develop and maintain an accurate budget. They will learn to work as a for-profit business, using journalism skills to raise money.

EDITORIAL LEADERSHIPNewspaper editors-in-chief will learn skills of leadership. They will discuss redesign ideas, coverage, leadership, editorial boards and staff organization, motivation strategies and gathering story ideas. Editors will return to their staffs organized, informed and full of enthusiasm for the year ahead.

FEATURE & INDEPTH WRITINGThis class is designed for staff writers who need advanced writing skills as well as section editors. Students will learn to conduct a sophisticated, indepth interview, blend source information in features and use their voice in columns. They will learn to develop unique angles and edit for depth and precision.

JOURNALISTIC/OPINION WRITINGDesigned for students new to journalism as well as those with more experience. journalistic writing will unlock the secrets of great storytelling and give your writing power and pizzazz. You’ll get tips on reporting and interviewing, finding ideas and sources to bring your reporting to life and on writing leads and stories that just won’t turn your readers loose. You’ll learn the importance of accuracy, balance, fairness and AP style and strategies to get stories done by deadline.

SPORTS WRITINGIn this class students will learn how to find sports story ideas and how to interview and write about the athletes, the coaches and the fans. Students will learn to become keen observers, better writers, and most important, better storytellers. The class will focus on building strong, comprehensive sports coverage armed with pertinent news coverage, poignant feature attention and interpretive opinion columns.

PUBLICATION DESIGN BOOT CAMPBoth students and advisers can take this class to learn how to use InDesign to produce as well as modify a well-designed publication. The instructor will show the class how to use

InDesign to integrate design elements and the latest trends into any publication. Class participants will leave with a small portfolio of their work. ($25 lab fee)

DESIGN IDOL 2011In this advanced design class students who already know how to use InDesign will learn to use it more effectively by learning and using the four T’s of design: trends, tools, tricks and training. After a review of basic design elements, the instructor will teach the rules governing the elements and how to break rules effectively. Students will leave able to help their staffs improve typography and page consistency and be able to make designers’ visions jump off the page. ($25 lab fee)

VIDEO JOURNALISMThis class is designed for students and advisers who have little or no experience in broadcasting. In this class participants will learn how to produce stories for the visual electronic medium. They will learn to interview, write scripts for the ear, pitch stories to a news director, shoot stories and edit them for airing. Class members will produce Inside CJI, a show that will air at the awards breakfast Sunday morning. ($25 lab fee)

NEXT EXIT: INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAYAre you anxious to get your publication online but still a little apprehensive? Have you already created a website but aren’t quite sure how to take it to the next level? Not a problem. It’s the 21st century and creating a professional, fun and up-to-the-minute news website isn’t nearly the challenge it used to be. You just need the right information. Learn what’s in and what’s out in website design, writing and coverage. Get tips on how to use a variety of social media to gain readership and spread breaking news. Even find out how videos, soundslides and multimedia storytelling can add to your site’s quality. The journey begins June 8. ($25 lab fee)

PHOTOJOURNALISMThis class is designed for beginning and intermediate photographers. In this class students will learn how to produce award-winning publication photographs using digital cameras. They will learn about photojournalism, digital imaging basics and basic Photoshop and will leave the workshop not only with a collection of their class work but also with the knowledge of how to tell stories through photographs. ($25 lab fee)

RETHINK, REDESIGN, REVITALIZEFrom coverage, through reporting and into design, this class will provide journalists with skills they need in today’s converged world of scholastic journalism. Whether students need to create a yearbook theme, design page templates, plan feature packages with captions, headlines, alternative formats or stories, this class will be structured to meet the individual needs of the yearbook, online and print newspaper staff members. Come with a goal in mind, and our instructors will help you prepare for the next school year. Advisers are welcome to attend with editors and other staff members.

2011 Carolina Journalism Institute Class descriptions

PAGE 4 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

Karen’s Corner

Karen FlowersSCSPA Director

What an exciting year 2011 is for our state’s scholastic press association. We are not only celebrating our organization’s history, we are also making history! As I write this column, the 75th anniversary of the South Carolina Scholastic Press Association is just 249 days away – Oct. 16. That fact both excites and scares me even though we have been planning the anniversary for over three years. When we had an anniversary committee meeting Feb. 4, the pieces finally started to look like they fit together. Through his own voluminous scholastic journalism history research, Bruce Konkle, director of SCSPA for 17 years, has provided invaluable material to help us with our planning and with the history. Bruce has been our guide and mentor each step of the way. He helps us not only with who is who and what is what, but most importantly, his wisdom and dry sense of humor are keeping us on track. Will Felts, former newspaper adviser at James Island HS (now a charter school), has written an interesting and informative history. He has contacted over 70 individuals from lists of former and current students and advisers, awards winners – Journalists of the Year, Advisers of the Year, Scroggins – scholarship winners, former SCSPA directors, scholastic press managers and graduate and undergraduate assistants. Will has interviewed 34 individuals and weaved their comments into the SCSPA story. He says in the forward:

Before I’d collected history input from a gamut of advisers and students, I fretted about organizing this unwieldy spread of experiences and opinions.

But the differences bled away. While distinct one from the next, the war stories from the j-trenches were similar. Distinct in locations/times/technology. Similar in the problems and the solutions. The problems being that the j-students and advisers aren’t perfect, readers can be thin-skinned, some administrators are more hands-on. Those problems have been and will be. So will the solutions: a willingness to learn from mistakes, the drive for a better

It’s 2011……Let’s celebrate and make history!

way to do the job, a thirst to get the facts straight and balanced.

Reading Will’s history is like sitting down in a comfortable chair and talking with some journalism friends – people who have made SCSPA what it is today. Our 75th anniversary intern, Jenna Eckel, a School of

Journalism and Mass Communications public relations major, has worked with me to build a database of almost 300 names of people to invite to the Sunday banquet. She has spent countless hours helping plan and execute committee meetings, scanning photos, and writing letters to donors and sponsors and thank you notes when they respond. Right now she is working with Holly Schweitzer, a representative for our history book sponsor, Balfour, to begin the design process and make sure we have all the parts of the history covered. And me? I can hardly get through an hour without having some thought or other about the 75th. My life has changed dramatically: I use Facebook for research. Yes, you read that

correctly. I use this social networking site, the one I fought against vehemently, to friend former staffers on Facebook and invite them

to the anniversary. By using Facebook I found former Camden HS adviser Kay Horton in Tennessee, and I found former Wando HS student Clifton Chestnut in Spain. So much is going on my head is spinning, but I don’t want to stop. I want to pass on the excitement I have to you. I hope you will put Oct. 16 & 17 on your calendar right now and plan to be with us. But I mentioned we are making history as we celebrate history. At the Jan. 29 board meeting, SCSPA took a huge step toward fighting for student rights by establishing a non-member liaison who will monitor cases of First

continued on page 4

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 5

Amendment abuse in high schools and serve as a communicator among advisers, students, administrators, and the SCSPA board. Please see the list of responsibilities this person will have detailed on page 13. Ashley Brown, an SJMC second-year broadcast major has volunteered to be our first liaison. Ashley is the former editor of the J.L. Mann HS newspaper and SCSPA 2009 Journalist of the Year and is passionate about the First Amendment. Philip Caston, J.L Mann newspaper and yearbook adviser and SCSPA chair, in writing a blog about the position for the JEA Press Rights Commission said the liaison needed to be someone who had quick access to SCSPA and its resources. “The person would also be essentially ‘untouchable’; that is, he or she could not face repercussions from principals or school district officials. This person would also be one who believed in the free press, and, like most college students, would be willing to fight for the greater cause.” Phillip said the person who immediately came to his mind was Ashley, and when he called her, he didn’t even finish explaining to her what the job entailed before she said, “I’ll do it.” We are fortunate to have Ashley helping us in this new endeavor. Note the spring conference schedule will be similar to the fall. We will have a session at 9- 9:40. The assembly to meet the student officer candidates and hear speeches from the candidates for president will follow at 10:45. Please watch the schopress listserv and the SCSPA website for more details about the 75th anniversary and the May 2 conference.

continued from page 4

New Spring Conference Schedule

9 – 9:40 Session 1 (40 min.)9:45 – 10:10 Assembly (25 min.)10:20 – 11 Session 2 (40 min.)11:05 – 11:45 Session 3 (40 min.)11:45 – 1:15 LUNCH1:15 – 2: 35 Awards Ceremony1:15 – 2:35 YB Session (80 min.)

thewordwhenitcomestoassistingstudentsandstaffsenhancetheirpublications,”Konklesaid.“He’salsooneofthefunnieststorytellersandspeakerstoevergraceapodium.” SCSPA’s75thAnniversarycelebrationandbanquetwilltakeplaceOct.16andwillbefollowedbytheFallConferenceOct.17atthedowntownMarriottinColumbia. “Ithinkthisanniversaryisagreatwayforscholasticjournalismtocontinuetogrowbycelebratingsuchagreatorganization,”Eckelsaid,“especiallyonethathashelped,encouragedandtaughtsomanyyoungprofessionalswhohavebecomesuccessfulandinfluentialindividualstoday.”

Anniversary continued from page 1

-Written by Kelsey D’Amico, SCSPA Assistant

Happy Birthday SCSPA!

SCSPA is turning 75 years old next year, and we’re going to celebrate. Mark your calendars for October 16, 2011.

This event will include guest speaker Bobby Hawthorne, author of The Radical Write. SCSPA is encouraging staffs to hold publications reunions at the same time. Take advantage of this chance to look into the history of this organization and the journalism programs at your school.

For more informations look us up on Facebook at “S.C. Scholastic Press Association.”

PAGE 6 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

Former adviser writes SCSPA history

-Written by Kelsey D’Amico, SCSPA Assistant

WillFelts,formernewspaperadviseratJamesIslandHSinCharleston,saidheacceptedthechallengeofwritingthehistoryforSCSPA’s75thAnniversaryforonereasonor,moreimportantly,oneperson. “Intwowords:KarenFlowers,”Feltssaid.“Ithinkthesinglebiggestmotivatorinlifeisthebondoffriendship.Infact,I’dsaythat’sthetiethatbindsSCSPAadvisers.” However,withgreathistorycomesgreatresearch.Thisintensiveresearchbecamethehardestpartofwritingthehistory. “Researchamountedtocollectinge-mailandsnailmailaddressesofdozensofrespectedadvisersandstudentsanddependingonthemforinput.”Feltssaid.“Mostwerequicktorespondandpatientwithmyfollow-upquestions.”

Feltshadreceivedfeedbackfrom34respondentsincludingadvisersandstudents. AlthoughFeltssaidheisnoKarenFlowers,BruceKonkle,DavidKnightorTammyWatkins,hehaveadviceforfuturejournalists. “Myadviceisbasedonwatchingthesepeopleandofstudentswhowentontobecomerealjournalists,”Feltssaid.“Andthatadviceisthethreadbareobservationthat

successis90percentworkandonly10percentinspiration.”FeltsismorethanjustthewriteroftheSCSPA75thanniversaryhistory.Usingthename“SaundersNewcomb,”heisalsotheauthorofafantasticnovelcalledSpirits.Inane-mailinterview,hegavetheinsidescooptohowthebookcameabout.“SoonafterIretiredfromteachingin2002,aNavyshipmatefrommytimeonactivedutybackin1972lookedmeupandthenbikeddowntoCharlestonfromSt.Paulforareunion,”Feltssaid.“Hehadanulteriormotive.Manyfriendsknewhislifestoryandsuggesteditwouldmakeagoodnovel.”Feltsagreedtowritethestory.Afterweeksofresearchandwriting,thebookwascompletedinalittleoverayear.

“Becauseofthegeographicdistancebetweenourhomes,wecoordinatedviae-mailandnaturallydidn’talwaysseeeye-to-eye,”Feltssaid.“Forthemostpart,though,thedivisionofresponsibilitieswasclear:thestorywashisandthewriting,mine.” Spiritsisaheartwarmingtaleaboutthelossoflovebecauseofunfortunatecircumstance,andaman’ssearchtogainlovebackafteryearsofhard-learnedlifelessons.Felts’noveldoesanamazingjoblettingthereadersknowthatanymistakecanbeovercomeandthatlovedoesprevail. “SCSPA’shistory,”saiddirectorKarenFlowers,“isinthehandsofnotonlyanovelistandformerSCSPAadviserbutalsointhehandsofamanwhohasbeenblessedwithatremendousgiftofwriting.Hishistorywillbewhatahistoryshouldbe,thestoryofSCSPA’speople.”

Will Felts received the 2002 Reid Montgomery Adviser-of-the-Year award. Wife Joyce (left) and Principal Nancy Gregory (right) surprised him at the SCSPA Spring Conference.

SCSPA’s history is being printed by Balfour/Taylor Printing Company and will be given at the 75th Anniversary

banquet to guests.

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 7

the year was 1984. There was a teacher glut and I needed a job. The competition was fierce. With eight years of experience as a junior high school

English teacher, my chances of finding a job in Horry County were just so-so. After six months of calling the personnel office and various principals, I finally got an interview. The principal asked if I would be able to advise the student newspaper. Having never had a journalism course or any experience whatsoever in the field, I smiled and lied through my teeth. Of course I could do that, I said. I was hired. Hurray! The yearbook adviser, Becky Bannon, came to my portable classroom the first day of school, introduced herself and told me she had heard I had a master’s degree in journalism and asked if I’d like to help her since she had only advised for one year. I sized her up, had a gut feeling I could trust her and admitted I had no clue about this advising thing but would love to come to her yearbook class during my planning period and learn what I could from her. When I went to the prior newspaper adviser to get her supplies and all the advice she could offer, she handed me a box filled with border tape, Exacto knives, and letters for headlines you actually had to place on your layout sheet and rub on with a burnishing pen. Her words of advice were simply: “Good luck.” So began my journey in this thing called publication advising. I had no class or staff. The principal’s idea was I could get some of my seventh graders to write articles and also get some help from the yearbook staff. Becky and I became the best of friends and with her help, we put out three papers that year. Sending copy out to a typesetter was not an option because I was so green I didn’t even know what a typesetter was. I typed all copy in two inch (I didn’t know what a pica was either) wide columns on my portable typewriter. I hated this thing called advising. But the next year two things changed my attitude. First of all, we got a new principal. At first I was not happy. It’s

tough training a new principal, and I had just gotten used to the one we had. Furthermore, he asked that we meet with him individually before school started. Was he for real? That meant I would have to come off the beach, shower and put on “work” clothes and waste one of my last precious days of summer doing something school related. I walked into his office hoping to get in and out as quickly as possible. One of the first things Wendell Shealy asked me was what he could do for me to make advising easier. Without batting an eye I told him No. 1, I needed an actual class and No. 2, I wanted to have our copy typeset. He agreed. I was pleasantly surprised. He then went on to tell me he and his wife had both advised newspapers and yearbooks when they taught at Woodland Park, the school on the Myrtle Beach Air Force base. The second thing that sparked my passion for scholastic journalism occurred the following spring. The principal and adviser at Woodland Park invited Becky and me to go along with them and their students to this thing called the SCSPA Spring Conference. That’s where I began to network with other advisers and learn that there were others out there

Adviser remembers her experiences as first time adviser,

with SCSPAMartha Herring shares her journey as

an adviser in scholastic journalism, including her time at Carolina Forest

and how she got involved with SCSPA.

Martha Herring reads the latest issue of The Prowler. She has advised newspapers for 20 years.

continued on page 8

PAGE 8 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

who had been just as inept and frustrated as I was, but the good news was there was help available. That summer a handful of rising eighth-graders and I attended the Carolina Journalism Institute. We met this kind man by the name of Bruce Konkle, the then director of SCSPA, who encouraged us and made us believe we could do this thing called journalism. We also met this lunatic by the name of David Knight, the “Jeff Foxworthy” of scholastic journalism, who is undoubtedly the best writing teacher I’ve ever met. He sat down with our staff and gave us lots of feedback, and he was kind, praising what we did right and gently suggesting how we could improve. So began the next 20 years of my life as an adviser. My last year at Socastee Middle, the Tribe Scribe staff won the coveted SCSPA Palmetto Award. We had actually beaten Woodland Park who had won it every prior year. The next day after winning the award, a huge floral arrangement of spring flowers was delivered to my classroom. The card read, “Congratulations to the Tribe Scribe staff and adviser.” It was from Woodland Park. This is just one example of the support, the camaraderie, the friendships I’ve been so lucky to encounter through my participation in scholastic journalism organizations like SCSPA and SIPA. We are a family. Karen Flowers and her staff are another example. We’ve traveled together, we visited each other’s homes, we’ve laughed together, we’ve cried together. Karen and Leslie Dennis came to my husband’s funeral (120 miles from Columbia) on a cold, dreary, rainy February day. That’s something I’ll never forget. And Wendell Shealy is another example. He became such a mentor that Becky and I followed him to St. James Middle when he was asked to open that brand new school. He could always find the money for the journalism program there. I was the first teacher at St. James to have a computer in my classroom when Wendell somehow got one of the local businesses to donate it. He sent me to Horry-Georgetown Tech to learn how to use a new desktop program called Pagemaker. I was the only one in the class who had to have help booting the computer up the first day. But the kids and I learned the program and began to produce the entire paper on our own. How empowering that was. And we did it with one computer. Gradually, Wendell found ways to get us more computers and by 1996 we had five computers in my room, something unheard of in our district at that time. Becky and I continued to work together, her with yearbook and me with newspaper at St. James. We traveled to so many conferences; we took students on drama tours of New York City. While sharing our passion for journalism and teaching, we also became the closest of friends. She, in fact, is my daughter, Megan’s, godmother. And my children are another chapter in my scholastic journalism journey, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

One summer morning in 1996 Becky called me and asked if I had read the paper yet. I had not. She instructed me to turn to page two of the local section and read the news briefs. There in one paragraph was something that would change my journey yet again. Wendell Shealy would no longer be principal of St. James, the brief read. He was going to open the new Carolina Forest High School and Middle School. We were devastated. How could he leave us? We were angry. How dare he leave us! And he had better not even ask us to go with him. We had opened St. James. It was ours. We would never leave. Several months later I ran into Wendell at the district office. “Just come take a look at the blueprints, Martha,” he said. “I need a good journalism teacher at Carolina Forest. “ I told him I’d look, but no way would I transfer. I had my two children to consider. They were entrenched in St. James schools. But I looked at the blueprints. Wendell pointed out

Herring currently advises at Carolina Forest HS in Myrtle Beach. She has advised both middle and high school publications.

continued from page 7

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 9

the journalism studio with dark room that could me mine. I went home and discussed it with my husband. I wanted to go. David Knight had been telling me for the past several years I should make the move to high school advising, that I could do it. I didn’t think I could. But I trusted my gut. I knew Wendell would be a strong supporter of the journalism program. I decided to make the move. So did Becky, but she opted for the drama department and no more yearbook. At Carolina Forest I met two other teachers who share the passion for scholastic journalism: broadcast teacher Todd Scholl and yearbook adviser Abbie Whitney. We’ve built the program from scratch. It wasn’t easy. Our campus has evolved from holding grades 7-12 to just 9-12 with a little more than 2,000 students. We’re in year 14. On The Prowler staff we’ve gone from waxing down our copy, manually laying it out and taking it to the Sun News in the wee hours of the morning for printing to sending it electronically to our printer and having the finished product delivered to our doorstep. I‘ve had the privilege of teaching both of my children all four years of their high school careers. Megan was a sports editor and editor-in-chief for two years. Drew was design editor and entertainment editor. Megan went on to major in journalism, public relations at USC and is working as a public information coordinator for the state retirement system. Drew is a sophomore at Coastal Carolina, majoring in sociology and, although he is not majoring in journalism, he uses the skills

he learned through scholastic journalism daily. I anticipate retiring in eight more years. I know it will go by all too quickly. I don’t pretend to know all the answers, but I do know to keep the passion alive for this thing called scholastic journalism requires constant growth and education. Recruiting and motivating staff members is another must. Without students who share my passion, I’d have nothing. I’ve been blessed to have met, nurtured and mentored so many outstanding young men and women over the last 26 years. I’ve learned that there’s always another challenge around the bend. We are now trying to put together an online presence. The learning curve is steep for me, but I know I can rely on the students to teach me as well as all the experts at SCSPA, SIPA and JEA. I was asked to give advice to advisers with five years or less experience. My advice is to hold on to your hat. It will go by so quickly if you surround yourself with quality organizations and people as I have. I hope you meet your own Wendell and Becky and Todd and Abbie and Bruce

and David and Karen and the hundreds of students who will not only touch your life but change if for the better.

-Written by Martha Herring, adviser of The Prowler at Carolina Forest HS

A Quick Q&A With MarthaQ: If you could go back to the day you started advising and be asked again to advise what would you say?

A: Absolutely! It’s what saved me from teacher burnout!

Q: Over half of our publications in our current SCSPA memberships are advised by teachers who have about five or less years of experience, what two pieces of advice would you give them?

A: Become active in SCSPA, SIPA, JEA—you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Get help from these organizations. They will become your lifeline. Also, start small. Set attainable goals. It takes a while to build a successful program; it doesn’t happen overnight. Celebrate your successes and don’t beat yourself up over your failures. Pick yourself up and try again.

Herring’s story of advising is a familiar one. She began hating advising, but with the help of organizations like SCSPA, she found a network of support.

PAGE 10 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

With student rights coming under fire every day, it’s important for advisers and students to understand media law. An excellent resource for such an understanding is the Student Press Law Center website: www.splc.org. The Student Press Law Center is a great tool for unraveling the complicated intricacies behind FERPA** and other curveballs the school administration might throw at publications. The website is designed primarily for students and advisers with questions about their rights within the school zone. SPLC was created in 1974 to protect youth’s free speech. Over 30 years later, the organization knows the ins and outs of media law and freely shares advice on their website which is divided into several key components. Click on the Legal Assistance tab for help with a variety of legal questions. Complete with a virtual lawyer, this area of the website is a great tool answering all your questions regarding access to records, advertising, censorship, copyright, invasion of privacy, libel and protecting sources and information. A personal favorite of this feature is the FOI letter generator. Young journalists can create their own request for public information with the click of a button. Detailed advice on how to successfully obtain records also is highlighted.

Director’s note: Our members often need help trying to navigate the obscure and convoluted reasons administrators use to keep pub-lications from responsibly practicing their First Amendment rights. I asked Ashley Brown, former SCSPA Journalist of the Year and current j-school student to see what is on the Student Press Law Center website to help student journalists be responsible, accurate and fair in their pursuit of journalistic excellence as they gather, write, edit and publish their stories. Her review of the SPLC website should help.

Other useful websites:

www.splick.orgSPLC’s blog following personal experiences with controversy

www.hsj.orgA great tool full of journalism lesson plans for advisors

The Know Your Rights tab offers a comprehensive law library with successful court rulings regarding student media. An interactive map of the United States highlights which states students have a free expression law protecting student journalists. Only eight states have protection. South Carolina is among those states without legal protection. Classroom Features is great for both the newsroom and classroom. SPLC has created PowerPoints and handouts along with teacher notes on subjects like the First Amendment Law, copyright and reporter’s privileges. Classroom features also includes quizzes and a test on student rights. There is some great information for advisers who currently are struggling to understand their publication’s rights, and how to handle controversy correctly. The News tab provides links to stories across the nation detailing the battle for students’ rights and chronicles the events on a monthly basis. SPLC offers links to other sources of legal help and has a legal hotline (703) 807-1904 for questions not answered on the website. SPLC’s blog is a great way to understand that South Carolina is not the only state battling for protection of student’s speech. **Family Education Rights and Privacy Act is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student educaton records.

http://journalism.indiana.edu/resources/ethics/A list and description of over 170 cases regarding journalism ethics

http://www.nfoic.org/Freedom of Information Act dissected for the common eye

http://www.freeexpression.org/A great website with useful ideas for combating censorship

SPLC website: Excellent resource to help scholastic journalists know their rights, responsibilities

-Written by Ashley Brown. Ashley is a second-year electronic journalism major at the University of South Carolina. She is a former South Carolina Journalist of the Year and recently received the

South Carolina Broadcasters Association Scholarship.

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 11

Mix one bipolar, narcissistic staff writer with a gift for descriptive writing, one belligerent control freak capable of selling three ads in 50 minutes, three good-for-nothing slackers, three well-intentioned students wanting to learn and one dogged editor-in-chief willing to arrive at school 15 minutes before anyone else. The end product was my newspaper staff two years ago. In the two years before I became adviser of our school’s newspaper, The Odyssey, had gone to seed. Enrollment had dropped and the Newspaper Production class had become a dumping ground for guidance. The majority of students didn’t even know The Odyssey existed. To get the best students on campus to sign up for the newspaper staff would be a tough sale. To bring quality students back to The Odyssey, I realized, would require some heavy recruiting. The problem? We have an IB program that soaks up our most talented kids and packs their schedules so tightly they have little latitude to select other courses. Given our paper’s weak reputation on campus, few top-shelf students were willing to walk away from their solid IB program to do the news. Not fully realizing the odds against me, I prepared individualized letters to each IB sophomore and pre-IB freshman. I signed each letter, stuffed each one in an envelope and wrote each individual student’s name in black felt-tip marker. In the weeks leading up to registration, I personally spoke to every class of Honors English II and Pre-IB English I. A conservative estimate of the time I spent on this recruiting effort would be 10 hours. The yield? One former

IB student showed up in my class this fall. Dismal. This minimal return on time invested forced me to realize that if I wanted to improve my program, I was going to need to work smarter, not harder. Our IB program, I realized, would not be going anywhere soon. Competing against it would be futile. So, instead of fighting against the IB-establishment at my school, I enlisted an IB English teacher with a solid background in journalism. This teacher also has a solid reputation among our school’s top students. I invited this teacher to become co-adviser of The Odyssey with me and our first effort together was to revive the Journalism Club which had existed in name only for as long as I can remember. My new co-adviser put out announcements, hyped up the meeting and included this critical phrase on our school’s scrolling marquee: “Refreshments will be provided.” The

time for the meeting was set for 3:05-3:35 – a 30-minute meeting meant to accommodate the busy schedules of booked-up IB students. The yield this time? Eighteen students from all different backgrounds – students from IB seniors to CP freshmen attended the 30-minute meeting. So now we have six new photographers, four new sports writers, two new columnists, and another brash advertising kid (God bless her). Time will tell if any of these new kids are worth their salt, but as a tool for recruiting and getting kids involved at the most basic level, the club concept was a million times more efficient than selling the Newspaper Production class itself. The key, of course, is promising to provide a snack at the meeting.

Getting around the IB program drain: recruit smarter

Greg Davis is the co-adviser of The Odyssey newspaper at James Island Charter HS in

Charleston.

Make plans now!SCSPA Spring Conference: May 2

Earlybird Registration deadline: April 1

-Written by Greg Davis, James Island Charter HS

PAGE 12 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

Good parents let their children make mistakes and then help them learn through the experiences those mistakes bring. I will never forget the weekend before I came to college. My parents let me use their old mini-van, warned me about curfew and told me to text them the house number when I got to my destination. I was the designated driver for a group of friends, and in my excitement to go into the party, I forgot to turn off the car lights, parked on private property, and I forgot to text Mom the address. Needless to say, this experience ended badly. An angry neighbor reported my illegally parked car to the police, who then called Mom. Mom called me, furious and frantic. I grabbed my friends and my keys and apologized to the police officer. He told me I had five minutes to move the car or else he would tow it away. My friends high-fived each other thinking they had avoided trouble – until I put the keys in the ignition and found the battery was dead. The house where the party had been was completely empty after the police had shown up, and I had no idea where I was. I didn’t even know what neigh-borhood I was in. My Mom’s voice was terrifying. All she knew was the police had found my car with the lights left on off some street, and now I was lost and in the middle of nowhere in the pitch-black night. I remember hearing my Mom’s voice over the phone, “Leave her there! Make her learn her lesson. She can walk home!” Luckily, right at that moment, the owner of the house where the party had been came by and gave me an ad-

dress. I phoned Dad with the address, and he plugged it into MapQuest, drove out to the middle of nowhere and jump-started the mini-van. If he had not driven out there, I probably would still be walking back from that party, tail between my legs. I will never forget the conversation I had with my par-ents when I got home. They had trusted me, and I screwed up. I knew I had to make things right and that I could never be so irresponsible with their trust again. After that night I always knew my exact location, 24/7. In journalism it’s hard to let students grow up and make their own mistakes. It’s even harder to trust in their abili-ties after the mistakes they make, but it’s vital that advisers and principals allow students freedom of the press because without it, these students will never learn what the real world is like. Mistakes are going to happen. That’s how students work through their mistakes and misquotes that will shape them into the journalists we need. It’s not easy to step back and hand over the reins, espe-cially to students who seem so young. Let the errors hap-pen, and let students see the consequences of their publica-tion’s full-force and hide nothing from them. Push them to be better, and they will be. Principals, the greatest gift you can give to your pub-lication sudents is trust. Hire strong publication advisers who want to teach and mentor students. Let your school’s publications grow without interfering. Restricting a young journalist is like cutting the blossom off a blooming flower. Advisers, under your mentoring, help your students learn from their mistakes because when they leave you, they won’t get second chances. They’ll get pink slips. Strong advisers know if they do their job correctly, then students will do theirs correctly. Taking away freedom of expression hinders students and leaves them ill-equipped

for college or for life. My high school newspaper adviser gave me freedom to explore journalistically and taught me how to use the freedom respon-sibly. Now as a second-year college student interning with a political campaign, I’m stepping my toes into the world of profes-sional journalism, and although it’s a scary place with real consequences, I’m thriving. In high school, my adviser demanded stu-dents respect each other despite their differ-ences and that we all practiced self-control. Those demands shaped me for the business world. At my internship, I often see others behave unprofessionally. I return the next day; they don’t. I was traveling down the interstate in rural

Appalachia this summer when my left tire blew out and the car spun out of control. Since I had learned to always know my location, the police were able to locate me and es-cort me out of harms way. Learning from my mistake could have very well saved my life.

-Written by Ashley Brown, USC SJMC student

Good parents, good advisers allow students

to make mistakes

Ashley Brown is a second-year electronic journalism major at USC’s School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She was the 2009 S.C. Journalist of the Year.

“My high school newspaper

adviser gave me freedom to explore

journalistically and taught me how to use the freedom

responsibly.”

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 13

SCSPA set a goal for the 75th anniversary year to promote the First Amendment rights of all student media in the state. To help facilitate this goal, the executive board established a non-member liaison at the Jan. 29 board meeting. This liaison will monitor cases of First Amendment abuse in high schools and serve as a communicator among advisers, students, administrators, and the SCSPA board. Responsibilities of the liaison will include, but are not limited to:

1. being available to all South Carolina publications – not just SCSPA members – through a First Amendment hotline to be distributed with liaison’s phone number and e-mail on wallet cards;2. acquiring a working knowledge of past and current First Amendment legislation regarding scholastic journalism, and informing the SCSPA board of changes and pertinent current events;3. maintaining communication with the Student Press Law Center if necessary action is required;4. establishing a relationship with the law professors at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications (Jay Bender, Eric Collins and Carmen Maye) to supplement the advice and support of the Student Press Law Center;5. working through various types of communication – newsletters, e-mail, schopress listserv, Facebook & Twitter – to inform advisers and students of their rights under law and giving them outlets to protect those rights;6. documenting cases of First Amendment abuse in South Carolina for SCSPA records;7. communicating as necessary with administrators about their students’ First Amendment rights and making proactive suggestions for improving relations with school media staffs;8. contacting local media outlets to protect student journalists;9. working with the SCSPA Executive board to establish a plan of action for proposing a Student Freedom of Expression bill to the S.C. state legislature;10. teaching an introductory First Amendment session at each SCSPA conference.

The chair and the executive director will nominate the First Amendment liaison. The nomination will be for a one-year term. Terms may be renewable. The Executive Board will vote on the nomination/renewal.

SCSPA establishes First Amendment Liason

PAGE 14 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION • WINTER 2011

I have a confession to make. I don’t have any war stories about spending late nights with students in a blur of pizza boxes and last-minute design changes. I have never had to ask the custodian to unlock the front door of Chapin HS to let me out at some unholy hour because I was the last teacher at school. And when other publication advisers talk about the time they had to recreate an entire page because some student hit the wrong key and deleted a week’s worth of work, I remain quiet. That’s because my staff doesn’t design our school paper. We use an online publisher’s template system. When I first took over the paper four years ago, I had an eager but meager staff of eight students. I had never advised a school newspaper and had very little experience in journalism in general. While those problems were tough, my biggest problem was I didn’t know how to make a newspaper. I mean physically make a newspaper. My only experience involved distant memories of sticky paper, X-acto knives, and large poster boards delivered to a printer who magically turned them into a school newspaper. I began to look into different programs for making the paper. I went to the Carolina Journalism Institute in June, and I went alone since I didn’t even know my staff members or their experience levels yet. I thought I could learn a few things about how to use the old InDesign program I inherited but that didn’t happen. I was too busy learning to be an adviser. That job seemed more important. I spent most of my time talking with other advisers in the Publication Advisers class about how to be a newspaper adviser and little time learning how to make a newspaper. The more I learned about what I would be doing in the classroom the less I focused on learning InDesign. I had a staff to teach. I had organizational methods to develop. I had to think about a mountain of minutiae, and while I had the best intentions, I never got around to learning how to use the program. School started and I finally got to meet my staff. They were all great kids with a desire to make a great paper, but none of them knew how to do it, not one. During the first couple of classes, we accomplished a lot. Staff positions were assigned, and we developed a system for story distribution, but we also realized we had a nearly insurmountable problem of making the paper, a problem made even more difficult because the class had no access to computers. My school is old. We have a computer lab and a laptop lab with a total of around 50 computers for a student body of over 1,200. Computer access is never guaranteed

and must be reserved weeks in advance. Undaunted by these challenges, I gave the students the task of looking into the programs I had explored earlier in order to get their feedback on which one they felt would fit our needs. Unfortunately, none of them seemed enthusiastic about what they found. After talking about their results, the reason surfaced. They didn’t care about making a newspaper. They wanted to write. That is when the realization hit me. I had been worrying – maybe rightfully

so – too much about the technical issues of production. My students didn’t sign up for the newspaper class because they wanted to make a newspaper. They signed up because

they wanted to tell stories. They wanted to inspire people. They wanted to wake up the student consciousness. They wanted to write. Their desire to write suited me fine because I wanted to teach writing not InDesign. So, I had to figure out how I could turn my students’ stories into print. I finally found my answer with an online printer, and finding it was a godsend. This printing company offers an online version of InDesign called MyDesign, a free templated version of InDesign. MyDesign consists of pre-made pages, or templates, for newspapers or magazines. Reporters simply upload their stories and pictures into the assigned page and viola! The page is ready for editorial review. Each template has bylines and cutlines, photo credits, page numbers, and page flags- just about everything an InDesign page would have. The company offers over 60 InDesign templates that a staff can use as the start of a page, and then edit as needed. While the burden of making a paper has been lifted from my staff’s shoulders, the greatest benefit of all is with my instruction. Class time focuses on writing instruction and developing the journalistic process. Since I work with an annually changing staff with a wide range of abilities, this use of class time is critical. We have more time to spend working on interviewing techniques. However, my solution is not perfect. I have sacrificed design and layout. We cannot change the templates. We are locked in to very specific layouts. We will never win an award for the way the Chapin Claw looks. Many advisers feel design and layout are just as important as the stories placed on the pages, and I won’t argue the point. But for my staffs and me, MyDesign works and keeps our journalism program alive and keeps the students enthusiastic about interviewing, writing, editing and making a difference at their high school and in their community.

Confessions Of A Publication Adviser

Scott Compton advises the newspaper and literary magazine at

Chapin HS.

-Written by Scott Compton, Chapin HS

WINTER 2011 • SOUTH CAROLINA SCHOLASTIC PRESS ASSOCIATION• PAGE 15

1. Establish professionalism. Our new principal knew our journalism program was founded on professionalism, but it did not hurt to reaffirm this knowledge. The first thing on my agenda in establishing a First Amendment relationship was to give him a copy of our newspaper’s code of ethics and professionalism. We arranged a time for the principal to visit our newsroom to discuss these code of ethics and professionalism. The staff members interviewed him for a piece we were doing on the new administration which demonstrated how professional they could be in doing their jobs.

2. Let them know their opinion is valued. Under our old administration, I never had prior review. I did not want the new principal to establish this much-hated practice, so I went to him with the first issue’s budget. It was a simple courtesy call on my part and another extension of professional-ism. We discussed the story ideas and the angles and I asked him for any ideas he had. After this first initial visit, he has not questioned my profes-sionalism in publishing the school newspaper and he often calls us with story ideas that we sometimes go after or sometimes do not.

3. Produce quality work. The best way to establish and maintain a First Amendment relationship is to always produce quality work. Make sure that students quote properly, report both sides of every story and always edit for accuracy. If a story is controversial, it is less likely to be ques-tioned by the administration if it is handled with the utmost journalistic ethics. Also, quality work gets them on board the journalism program and allows them to use your courses in their success stories.

4. Include them in awards. We nominated our new principal for Alabama’s Scholastic Journalism Administrator of the Year after his first year on the job, and he won the award. This was just a stepping stone for him as a supporter of scholastic journalism. Since that first year, he has won the award again. To see those plaques hanging in his office means we have his support to keep the First Amendment alive in our hallways.

5. Educate them on the First Amendment and the Scholastic Press. Principals often do not know the history of scholastic journalism and the Supreme Court. The Journalism Education Association bookstore sells a book titled “A First Amend-ment Guide for Principals and Administrators” which I purchased for our principal. We also invited our new principal to class the day we discussed Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier and other key scholastic journalism Supreme Court cases.

6. Take them with you to conferences and conventions. We invited our principal to the Alabama Scholastic Press Associa-tion’s annual convention, and he accepted our invitation. He attended various seminars of his choice and even attended one I was presenting. After one of the seminars, he took the time to talk with my staffs about the seminars they attended. On the Monday morning following the convention he informed me he did not know how extensive and serious scholastic journalism was. He has been a fan since.

Establishing and maintaining a First Amendment relationship with your principal

When the principal of Sparkman High School extended a job offer to me in 2003, he knew he was hiring a hard-headed journalism professional. I had spent time designing ads at a local newspaper, coordinating national trade shows and writing for trade publications at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and handling local press at the Huntsville Museum of Art. I had encountered bosses who valued the First Amendment. What I did not know was how much this principal valued the First Amendment when it came to his high school students. Lucky for me, this principal respected me as the journalism professional he hired. Two years into my scholastic advising career, this principal suddenly retired and left my staffs and I with an unreadable, strict and sort of a control freak principal. The first item of business with this new administration was to establish a First Amendment relationship. The remainder of this article will tell you how we established this relationship and how we main-tain it.

- By Erin Coggins, MJE • Sparkman High School Journalism, Harvest, Ala.

Erin Coggins has advised the award-winning newspaper and yearbook at Sparkman High School in Harvest, Ala. for seven years. She has been awarded the Alabama HS Adviser of the Year twice, the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Key and the Dow Jones Special Recognition Adviser award. She will be the special guest speaker at the SCSPA May 2 conference.

School of Journalism and Mass CommunicationsUniversity of South CarolinaColumbia, SC 29208