For me, no topic has been as controversial or delicate as my continued coverage of how the war in Gaza affects my community. In interviews, some students shared shocking incidents that never made it into the article. It was a tough call to make, but after consulting with school administration (who had little stake in the article) and our school's youth safety officers, I decided against including those specific stories. Ultimately, the potential legal and safety risk that those students would be opened up to outweighed the benefit to the story — even though the students had consented. 

I've pushed back against administration other times, though. I reported on a protest and dialogue event surrounding the same topic that was published in issue that comes out on the day the seniors graduate. Initially, my adviser didn't want me to publish the article at all, aruging that it would cause controversy at graduation and create undue stress on our principal. I disagreed, arguing that it was not my job to worry about my reporting's impact on the principal. My priority was highlighting events crucial to the community, and this was one of them. The article was published.

Throughout my coverage, I refused to include quotes from sources who wanted to remain anonymous. As a rule, The Roar tries to avoid anonymity whenever possible, as we feel it detracts from credibilty. On such a controversial and senstive issue, I wanted my reporting to remain as credible as possible.