NOTE: Editorials that appear within The Scroll are strictly the opinions of the editorial board. These opinions are based on research, group discussion, and personal beliefs and do not represent the views of the entire student staff, nor those of the faculty or administration of White Station High School.
The Scroll is a student-run newspaper written “by the students, about the students and for the students of White Station High.” Our goal? We aim to be interesting, informative, factual and objective. Now, if you think we don’t fit this criteria, maybe keep that to yourself — we’re struggling as is. Other than those guidelines we also have a mission statement, and if you’re really eager, I suggest you flip to the front page and give it a read.
Ever wondered how we decide what makes it into the paper? No? Well, before I give you a solid answer I have a few things to explain. First, the editorial board, which includes team leaders, the editor-in-chief (EIC) and the managing editor (ME), is a team that Scott Harrison, the advisor of The Scroll, chooses at the end of every year to lead the paper the following year. Second, our paper has a voice. This voice shifts with every new EIC and ME who decide in which direction they want to take the paper. This year, we wanted something fresh — hence, the Love Island centerspread and the additional stress our EIC puts on our poor layout lead each issue to pepper the pages with snowflakes or hearts to match the season’s aesthetics. Sometimes, the editorial board will opt for a more serious paper, going for more New York Times and less Us Weekly. Not us, but maybe next year you won’t have to read any articles on what’s up with our school bathrooms — for now, the stench persists.
With that background knowledge in hand, it’s time to understand what we write about and why. We base our decisions on many factors: namely timeliness and currency (think movie review), oddity (think banjo kid), human interest (think of Leilani’s Luxuries, Sweet Waves cookies, or the dozens of other student-run businesses we’ve covered over the years).
Every two weeks or so, our staff submits two original story ideas (harder than you’d think; turns out everyone thought the TikTok ban was an original idea). Over the course of two days our editorial board reviews these ideas and decides their fate using our color-coded system: red means we won’t cover the idea, usually because someone else already suggested it or we’ve covered it in the past year or two — NOT because we hate our writers; yellow means put it on hold, so maybe it’s tied to a future event or fits a later issue’s theme; and finally, green means good to go for the upcoming cycle. We also have blue social media coverage and purple for podcast ideas — speaking of, make sure to give one a listen. From there, the EIC and ME divvy up greenlit ideas among our four sections: Sports, Viewpoint, Arts and Entertainment and News and Features. Each section’s team leader assigns their writer’s articles, and the scramble for interviews begins.
Now, you might be wondering “Why on earth have I seen this same person featured in the paper over and over?” We’re wondering that too! To avoid repeating interviews — it’s not that you’re not interesting, it’s just that we have over 2,000 students, so we should really try for new interviews — The Scroll created a “no-fly” list to limit features to one per person per year. But sometimes we can’t help it and are forced to use the same person for multiple interviews. This can be fixed, but you’ll just have to start accepting our interview requests! And if you’re really tired of not seeing yourself in the paper, you can send a letter to the editor. Just head to our website and you can send in your own piece to be published online and even in the physical paper. Go for it, we’d love to hear from you! (Please do, our inbox gets very lonely.)
Your final question may concern our lack of decorum in some issues of the paper. We personally believe there’s no such thing as too much fun, but it all boils down to the tried and true phrase ‘we know our rights.’ Specifically, our First Amendment right. You might catch us every now and again reciting said amendment word for word in an oddly cultish way before going about our days, and the reason for this is the paper’s belief in no prior review. Our advisor ensures that our paper can truly be by and for us students without the input of a restrictive, looming and mortifying force (MSCS), though sometimes he’ll offer a suggestion here and there. But, at the end of the day, it’s up to us, the students, to write a paper we believe represents the school and all the wonderful people and things it has to offer.
That’s all for now! Hopefully this editorial was completely informative, factual and objective, and if not — I won’t tell if you don’t.
