'In their backyards'
Yearbook students learn compassion, empathy in being reporters

by Susan Duncan

Three days after Katrina blew through the Gulf Coast region, my yearbook staff sat on the sidewalk outside a Red Cross shelter in Longview, Texas, talking to a New Orleans senior who had seen his high school submerged in 20 ft. of water as he watched the evening news.

Michael had a story to tell, as did the other 400 evacuees who arrived with very little except what would fit in the trunk of their cars. Sure, the weathermen had predicted that this would be a strong hurricane, but New Orleans had withstood other storms. The city should be back to normal in three or four days, they thought.

When the grim reality of the destruction became known, teenagers were faced with the question of where they would continue their education. How would their parents find housing or work? What about their girlfriends or boyfriends who might be with families in another state? Would they ever see all their friends again, or were they even alive?

As my student reporters sat down with individuals, they learned to ask the hard questions.

“"When we first arrived, it was hard to get anyone to talk to us,"” senior editor Meagan Love said. “"We approached one woman who refused to talk and got really upset just thinking about the whole situation. The last woman I went up to had a story to tell because her whole family had been separated in the storm."”

A national guardsman stationed the Red Cross shelter answers sophomore reporter Janet Hardin’s questions. Keeping hundreds of people who registered for aid at the Longview shelter required hundreds of local volunteers in addition to the assistance provided by the government. Photo by Kori Johnson

The experience was not just about student journalists covering a national story in their backyards, it was also about teenagers and family members who were going through a traumatic experience being able to vocalize their fears to young reporters who could share their pain and who took time to listen.

"Going to Maude Cobb [Convention Center] to meet the hurricane victims made me feel very fortunate. I wasn't so quick to complain about what I needed or wanted,"” yearbook reporter Karah Garrett said. “"Things I didn't have seemed very small compared to their needs. The realization of them having nothing hit hard when I saw all their belongings on a cot in a make-shift shelter.”

In an attempt to share some of the victim's stories quickly, I set up a blog, an online news journal, called Katrina's Stories. I wanted this to be an avenue where students could explore a quicker and less structured forum for their writing than waiting for full-blown feature stories to appear in the yearbook in May. Other reasons I wanted to encourage online journaling included increasing students' fluency and helping them develop a voice in their writing.

The problem is finding the time to journal while still focusing on producing a spring book. The blog was much less time-consuming to set up than it was to get students to add to it. In fact, I would say the blog took less than an hour to create through Blogger.com. It was a pretty simple process of choosing a template, setting up a username and password and providing some basic information. Then I wrote a set of instructions to give to my students so that they could access the site.

A challenge of blogging on a site with the school's name attached is getting students to use more formal language than what they are accustomed to using in their own personal online journals on sites like Xanga, that boasts 2.5 million users.

Watching helplessly, 18-year-old senior Michael Dier, from Chalmette, La., is mesmerized by the Fox News coverage of New Orleans. He said that he saw his high school, a two-story building, completely submerged except for the roof line. Dier’s family was offered a home in a nearby community where they plan to stay for Michael to finish his last year of school. Photo by Lacie Richardson

In addition to blogging, the staff is covering Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita through two spreads in the yearbook where they will share short feature stories about people they interviewed along with more detailed accounts from new Pine Tree students who have decided to call Longview home. We also plan to interview Red Cross officials and city officials about the impact of the hurricane on the community.

We will also use photos that we took at the shelter along with informal shots of students we interview on our campus.

"I just joined yearbook this year, so interviewing the hurricane victims seemed like a big job for a ‘'newbie,'"” reporter Lacy Hutchinson said. “"Despite my nervousness, I seemed to catch on pretty well and ended up enjoying it so much I want to go back for more. It was hard to see all these people that are just like us with no home, no clothes and no idea of what will happen to them.”"

As a publications adviser, when taking on coverage of a major event early in the year, I worried about spending too much time trying to get a grip on something this large at the expense of other deadlines. My hope is that as students learn more about being journalists, they will follow up on these stories on their own.

"Being at Maude Cobb made me realize that everyone can work together,"”reporter Luisa Hernandez said. “"It broke my heart seeing all the little kids without a home."”

Although all my students will not become professional journalists, they are all citizens who should learn to reach out to people in crisis. I am proud of those who have gone back as single volunteers or with faith-based organizations to help meet victims' needs.

"My trip to the shelter was a moving experience. When I met Shanna who was five months pregnant, I was heartbroken to hear her story,"”senior staff member Samantha Langston said. “"I went back to visit her family that afternoon to see if I could do something for them, and they were gone. It just shows you how disorganized their lives are."

As a journalism teacher, I wanted my students to get the story of the year; as an educator, I wanted them to make a difference. Hopefully, as the year plays out, we can say we have accomplished both.

Susan Duncan, CJE, has published yearbooks/newspapers for 18 years in Texas and has received numerous awards for her publications including the Star Award from ILPC. Duncan is currently serving as state director for the Texas Association of Journalism Educators. She owns her own photography business and teaches Digital Graphics and Animation in addition to advising The Buccaneer yearbook and coordinating academic competition at Pine Tree High School in Longview, Texas. Duncan has taught workshops in yearbook, photography and technology and has presented at state and national conventions. She can be contacted at sduncan@pinetree.esc7.net.