A group of students at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School is working to create a news outlet that covers schools across the county, hoping to “bridge the gap” between students in different areas.
Three B-CC students have begun working on the concept, which would develop a countywide magazine including feature stories, student profiles, opinion pieces and school news, according to one of the organizers, Rachel Auerbach, a rising senior at B-CC.
The magazine’s creators, now just the B-CC students with hopes of expanding and including more people, would reach out to journalism or English programs for story ideas and invite students to submit pieces for publication.
Auerbach said the group is “focusing on quality more than quantity” in the beginning and plan to publish only one 36-page magazine during the 2019-2020 academic year.
“The idea mainly took shape after we had been talking about how unfortunate it is that so many Montgomery County schools don’t have newspapers, and how interesting and beneficial it would be to have a space where every student in MCPS could share their voice,” Auerbach said.
David Lopilato, journalism teacher at B-CC, said the group is still exploring the viability of printing copies of the magazine. He estimates doing so would cost about $1.80 per magazine and the group would print about 12,500 copies, but Lopiloto said they are exploring partnerships with local printers to bring the cost down.
Many schools have strong, award-winning student newspapers, such as Rockville and Richard Montgomery high schools, while others have no newspaper. Many of the newspapers are funded by parent-teacher associations, creating inequities, students said.
Most of those newspapers only cover issues facing the individual schools, but Lopilato said the new countywide magazine would allow student reporters to explore local, state and national news, as well.
“Students should be allowed to explore the regional, national and international through editorials, features and profiles,” Lopilato said. “Anyone who says high school students do not have anything valuable to add to a national or international debate or discussion on, say, gun violence or climate change, has simply not been paying attention.”
Members of the new magazine group also said they feel some minority-majority schools are targeted in the media as being “less than” others and hope to highlight the achievements of all schools.
“This county is extremely diverse, but I’ve noticed it’s very easy for students to become enclosed in their own school and community and ignorant of the experiences, challenges and perspectives that students at different schools face,” Auerbach said. “For example, a student at B-CC probably has no idea who the star athletes at Thomas Edison High School are, or how a student at Northwood feels about the new SAT adversity score, because they’re absorbed in their own school. Hopefully, this magazine will help dissipate these divisions and create a more united, well-educated county.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
