Incarcerated people in a California prison run a newspaper that raises awareness of social justice issues and offers a new chance to those in prison. Jonathan Chiu (Photo by Christie Goshe) This story won a third prize in News Decoder’s Ninth Storytelling...
Elena Towsend-Lerdo introduces us to a convicted murderer who finds redemption at a newspaper run by prisoners in California’s oldest jail. The San Quentin News is online and accessible to readers around the world. Townsend-Lerdo interviews Jonathan Chiu, who was released after serving 16 years of his 50-year sentence, and a journalism professor who trains prisoners, providing first-hand insight into incarceration and rehabilitation. Those are meaty issues, but the student at La Jolla Country Day School avoids sweeping statements to offer us a peek into the U.S. criminal justice system and a unique path to atonement. Who could your students interview to learn about criminal justice?
Journalists and NGOs often rely on each other to inform the world. But beware vested interests. It’s best to follow the money trail to see the full picture. A sign that counter-protesters lit on fire burns after supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump held...
I joined protests against police brutality in my home country of Nigeria and saw them almost become a war, then a rude awakening for youth. Protesters in Umuahia, Nigeria, October 2020 (All photos courtesy of Eje Studios) This story was a runner-up in News...
Joy Chinaza takes us into the streets of Nigeria to join young people protesting against police brutality. Like youth elsewhere this year, she is driven by anger over rights abuses perpetrated by police charged with protecting civilians but who instead turn weapons against minorities. A shared sense of injustice motivates Chinaza and millions of others around the globe, making her story a metaphor for youthful outrage. But the personal details in the tale by the African Leadership Academy student, including the beating her own brother suffers, add poignancy that sets her account apart. Make sure students note how the first-person pronoun draws them into the story. And how her outrage — so common among youth — is tinged with ambiguity at the end.
Youth in Nigeria, angry over police brutality, have formed a movement that started with street protests and which some see as a potential political force. Youth protest against Nigeria’s Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Lagos, Nigeria, 9 October 2020....
California student Lucy Jaffee interviewed renowned free-speech expert Floyd Abrams to write a forward-looking article on a landmark court case. Lucy Jaffee Lucy Jaffee was researching a complicated U.S. court case involving students’ right to freedom of speech....
A U.S. school district wants the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark free speech case and let it punish a student for criticizing her school online. Students protest for the right to free speech outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, 19 March 2007. (AP...
Lucy Jaffee of La Jolla Country Day School tackled a complicated topic — a court case involving a student’s freedom of speech and social media — by interviewing two experts, including the foremost authority on the U.S. First Amendment, Floyd Abrams. The lesson: If you put effort into understanding an issue, experts will be glad to speak to you. Students should contact experts because they will offer unique insights and help answer the question, “What next?”
The case Jaffee’s article focuses on lends itself to classroom discussion because it engages a matter of great interest to students. While students may instinctively side with the young woman whose Snapchat post triggered the controversy, there may be other off-campus outbursts on social media — Holocaust denial, racist language — that they might like to see sanctioned. Like so much in life, First Amendment issues often lie in the gray zone.
Millions of people around the world are stateless, with no rights and condemned to living in the shadows, on the margins of society. A Muslim Rohingya boy inside a shelter at an internally displaced person camp near the capital of Sittwe, Myanmar, 9 March 2017...
The Uighurs are not the only ethnic minority in China. Beijing’s repressive tactics reflect fears a separatist movement could threaten the state. Uighurs in Hotan, northwest China’s Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, 6 April 2008 (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) Last...
South Asia is no stranger to political dynasties. Sri Lanka’s ruling family is prompting worries about human rights and ethnic tensions. Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa (L) and his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in Colombo, Sri Lanka, 9...
International sport resumed play this month, altered by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement. An empty stadium and a show of support for the Black Lives Matter movement revealed how much the sporting world has been changed by the COVID-19 pandemic and the...
