About

Every year, 8th graders at Julian embark on a community service project. With just one trimester to work with, it’s rare to find a project that has a lasting impact. One example of student work that has endured is this newspaper, founded in the winter of 2018. Just last month, two former Julian students from that year, now both editors of the OPRF student newspaper, The Trapeze came back to share their journalistic wisdom. They also came to admire how the middle school paper has kept going strong years on. We interviewed these OPRF seniors, Jackson Hassler and Calvin Roe, as well as the former student that gets credit for founding this paper. 

Riley Comstock

Riley Comstock is credited as the one who introduced the idea for the school newspaper. The idea for a school newspaper started when Riley, now a sophomore at OPRF, was in 6th grade. Important things were happening at Julian, and one friend had the idea of writing the events down, which turned into the idea of a newspaper. To get the newspaper started, Riley talked to Mr. Goodwin, the 6th grade assistant principal at the time, who told him that the newspaper would need someone willing to host it, and Mr. Kadlec turned out to be that person, given his background as a newspaper reporter. The original paper was run by students in an Integrated Studies (SOAR) class with Mr. Kadlec but later became a club with meetings before school in subsequent years.

Jackson Hassler

Jackson Hassler was one of the original students working on the paper and largely involved when the paper became a thing at Julian. Now, he works as an editor at the newspaper at OPRF, The Trapeze. When Jackson, now a senior at OPRF, was in 8th grade, he was approached by Mr. Kadlec about the newspaper, who asked him if he wanted to join, and he accepted. He was joined by David Andolina, Eva Baker, Shaun Trock. Jackson said he had an interest in news and journalism, and a newspaper was a good opportunity for him to start. He’s glad he did. For one of the first issues of the newspaper, walk-outs regarding gun laws were happening all over the country, including at Julian. Jackson took pictures of the Julian walk out with a big video recorder that he had, leading to a front-page story in the first issue. The other topics that were written about included mental health, elections/politics, and student opinions. When asked, he described how the Jayhawk Journal this year is more packed, in addition to the material covered being different (for example, book reviews). One key difference is the production at The Trapeze has different statuses because the Trapeze has writers and editors, unlike this newspaper.

Calvin Roe

Calvin Roe, a senior at OPRF, now works on The Trapeze as an editor. When Calvin was in 8th grade, he heard about an integrated studies project: a group of students creating a school newspaper. Even though he wasn’t part of the newspaper himself (due to its production being in a class rather than a club), he admired the idea. When the first issue came out, Calvin said he remembers the topics being a lot of sports and a lot of opinion stories, which he says newspapers should explore because people want to know what the students really think. “I remember the stories reflecting what the student body wanted and liked,” he said. The general feedback for the newspaper was overwhelmingly positive, according to Calvin and Jackson. Calvin and Jackson told the Jayhawk Journal staff about the power of being a journalist, getting to write bout meaningful issues, and interviewing important people in the school.