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In my time as a writer for The Charger, I have received backlash from both the Oxford community and some of my peers at OHS. I have taken large risks in article writing for years, covering topics such as drunk driving, gun violence, new laws, and the lack of education for younger generations. My staff knows that I am always willing to cover controversial topics that could affect the entire nation or just our small town. The majority of the articles we write are well received by our community, but I have had the experience of having to defend my articles to other Oxford citizens, students of OHS, and even faculty of my school.
In my first couple months as the editor-in-chief of The Charger, I made a bold choice to co-write a staff editorial with my entertainment editor, George Monroe, about how my high school lacks in school spirit. George and I put great effort into this article and were extremely proud of our end result. However, when the rest of my high school read this article they were not pleased. Specifically, the "O-Men" (senior boys who paint their chests for football games and are responsible for the "spirit" of the student section) were livid with me for my work. I had to explain to them that as a journalist, I was protected by the first amendment's freedom of speech and press to write any opinion pieces, even if they criticize my own school. That did not mean they had to agree with my opinion, but the article was meant to express my point of view and hopefully encourage OHS to have more school spirit. Writing this article was nerve-racking, as I did not want to offend my peers or upset anyone in the OHS community. Having to stand up for my work was hard, but it was absolutely worth the risk.
In August of 2024, I proposed the idea of reaching out to two OHS alumni, Shelby McEwen and Sam Kendricks, who had placed silver in the 2024 Paris Olympics for their athletic events. I was lucky enough to know people who had both Shelby and Sam's personal phone number, and quickly reached out to them. I initially got responses from both, but after trying to set up a date and time to interview Shelby I received no response after several follow up texts. I was able to interview Sam at his local training center, RTC. Knowing that I had tried my hardest to include both Olympians, I proceeded to write the article even if I was unable to cover Shelby's story. On the top right is the double truck I made and article I wrote about Sam Kendricks in August of 2024. After publishing this work, I was quickly sent emails from my newspaper advisor and notified by my principal about an anonymous group of citizens who were upset that Shelby had not been included in my writing, saying that it was racist of The Charger to exclude Shelby. I explained to my principal and advisor that I had reached out to Shelby several times after his initial response and was still yet to receive a response back, and I was asked to screenshot my messages with him as proof for the anonymous group of citizens that The Charger had tried to include McEwen. The picture on the bottom left is a screenshot of some of the messages I had sent Shelby via iMessage that I was asked to share. After this event, I reached out to Shelby for a fourth time and finally was able to set up a date and time to interview him. This conflict was extremely scary to me, as I never tried to exclude McEwen and did not want any of my peers think of me as racist. While I was quickly able to clear the air with my principal by showing her my texts to Shelby, this was by far the scariest moment of my journalism career. I was able to cover Shelby McEwen's story and athletic journey in the September 2024 issue of The Charger, pictured on the top left.
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