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Writing for my school can be difficult. I am a very opinionated person by nature, but since I attend a Catholic school I must ensure that what is published is aligned with the school's mission. This has meant that many of my stories were not published when I first started writing for Padua360. However, as I developed my understanding of what I could publish that respected the school's mission and also highlighted important issues in our community, I grew more at peace with this reality. While I may not have been able to publish everything and I still struggle explaining to my staffers why their stories cannot go up on our site, I have worked to give others a platform as well as making my own voice heard.
Writing an opinion piece about the significance of the Pittsburgh shooting was a nerve-wracking experience for me. It took a long time for me to come to terms with my identity as the only Jewish student in my school. Having directly experienced both passive and targeted anti-Semitism at my school, I was nervous to put my opinion and identity out in the open. I was also terrified of the rejection I could potentially face. The piece was controversial by nature; it dealt with gun violence and the immense loss of life at the hands of extreme far-right movements. To my surprise, the piece was published. It has since won two awards, and remains the piece of which I am most proud.
A crucial part of ethical journalism is knowing when to insert yourself into a story and when to remain completely objective. To challenge my staffers to be as neutral as possible in feature and news writing, I encourage them to report on issues and events to which they have no personal ties. At the beginning of the year, all staff members were required to fill out a blacklist of their closest ten friends at school. They are not allowed to interview these friends, and may not write stories on clubs or activities of which they are a part.
Protecting sources is also crucially important to me. When I wrote about adopted students at my school, one student made it clear to me that she was not comfortable disclosing certain pieces of information and sharing every detail with me. I respected this and constructed the story with this in mind, careful to share her story in such a way that would not make her feel uncomfortable.
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