The new principal has come to the school. What do you think the school newspaper run by students will do? Should I give an exclusive interview to the principal, and add the principal’s beautiful work experience to introduce his past? I believe that most of the scenarios that everyone encounters in real life are like this. However, recently, student journalists from a middle school in the United States mercilessly gave the new principal a "warning".
Like most high schools in the United States, , Kansas , Pittsburg High School in the southeast of Pittsburg High School has its own school newspaper. The school newspaper currently has six students as journalists and editors. One of them is a graduating class in the 12th grade and five are 11th grade students.
6 student reporters from high school
On March 6 this year, the local school district committee approved the appointment of the new principal of Pittsburgh High School. The new principal, Amy Robertson, is named Amy Robertson. A spokesperson for the Education Commission said: "Roberson came to Pittsburgh High School with decades of educational experience." The new principal of the school is coming. This is a major event that all teachers and students in the school are concerned about, and naturally it is also the key content of the school newspaper's preparation for reporting. So, six student reporters immediately came together for a meeting to discuss how to introduce the new principal to everyone. They were preparing to interview the principal. To interview, they had to do their "homework" first, so they began to check the information about the principal together.
If you want to say that these high school students are really a professional journalist. They did not copy and paste the contents of the new principal's resume into the news item by item, but checked each content. One of the student Cuina later told the media interviewed: "She is about to become our new principal. As a student of this school, we hope that the new principal is qualified and has corresponding academic qualifications and qualification certificates to prove it. However, we have questions about her academic qualifications during the verification process."
President Robertson's resume shows that she once studied at Corllins University and obtained a master's and doctoral degree. But when the student journalists searched on the US Department of Education website, they were surprised to find that there was no such university at all! That is to say, this is a university that is not recognized by the Ministry of Education. The young reporters became alert. They continued to search and found that there were many articles that pointed out that the so-called Collins University is a "diploma factory", where you can buy various degree certificates with just spending money. The university does not even have an accurate address.
In the next few weeks, young journalists continued to investigate, and even during spring break, they contacted the educational institutions and certification agencies mentioned in Principal Robertson's resume to verify Robertson's background.
Will the student reporter investigate the new principal with such a big fanfare, and will he be under pressure from the school? Don't worry, according to Kansas law, student journalists in high schools are protected, and the content of school newspapers is not censored by school administration. According to regulations, each school newspaper has a teacher as a consultant, and the consultant of this school newspaper is Mr. Smith. “These kids are treated as media professionals,” said Mr. Smith. However, this "freedom of the press" is based on responsibility and credibility, which means that even without the "competent authorities" review, student journalists are very cautious and responsible for the text they send.
Although Teacher Smith is a consultant to the school newspaper, because she is a member of the school district’s committee to hire Robertson, in order not to put personal pressure on student journalists, she took the initiative to ask for evasion during the investigation of the new principal.
Before being employed by Pittsburgh High School, Robertson lived in Dubai, UAE for more than 20 years. According to her introduction, she had extensive educational management experience there, and finally served as CEO of an education consulting company in Dubai. The school newspaper reporters found an article about Gulf News in 2012, which reported that Robertson was the principal of an English school in Dubai. Due to poor management, the school's license was revoked.
Then the student reporters conducted a telephone interview with Robertson. Robertson answered the students' questions in detail and could not give a complete answer. Some of the time conflicted, and some of the responses were inconsistent with the resume. For example, students not only cannot find Collins University on the Ministry of Education website, but also do not have the name of this school in the schools that have been closed since 1986. Robertson said she got her degree before she lost her certification at Collins University, and her resume shows that she received her master's degree in 1994 and her doctorate in 2010. It seems that she was working in faraway Dubai while getting her PhD degree from the American "Pheat" University.
(Pittsburgh High School newspaper published a question about the principal's new principal on March 31.)
On March 31, last Friday, six student reporters decided to send their investigation results to the school newspaper. Student reporter Barden said: "We were very confident at that time because all we found were facts."
students' investigation report was posted on the front page of the school newspaper, which was tantamount to detonating a bomb locally. The direct consequence was that on Tuesday (April 4), Robertson announced his resignation as principal who had earned $93,000 last year.
On Tuesday night, the board of directors of the school district where Pittsburgh High School is located held an emergency meeting, and school newspaper reporters were invited to attend. At the meeting, the school district director announced that Robertson had resigned, and he also said that Robertson could not even produce his undergraduate transcript. At the meeting, parents suggested that these student journalists who revealed the truth should be commended, and the school district director immediately agreed.
Just like that, he pulled the new principal off the line in less than a month. The inconspicuous Pittsburgh High School School newspaper immediately became the focus of mainstream media reports in the United States, and TV stations such as ABC and CNN interviewed them. Many big-name reporters praised these high school students on social media.
student journalists are naturally proud of what they have done. 17-year-old Conna said: "The school administration can accept the facts and expresses appreciation and respect for everything we have done, which is better for us!"
But they also questioned: "If we can find out the truth, why did those supervisors ignore it?"
believe that the school district will then hold accountable for the hiring of Robertson.
These American high school student journalists are "a newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger", dare to question authority, and conduct in-depth investigations in pursuit of the truth. This spirit is truly amazing, and their ability to do all this is inseparable from cultivating this spirit of exploration and providing protection and support for the external environment.
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