APPLETON, Wis - NBC26 and our parent company, The E.W.Scripps are partnering with the News Literacy Project to help educate students on how to be informed news consumers.
News literacy is a concept to help the next generation of news consumers learn how to discern credible information from misinformation in today's media.
We are kicking off News Literacy Week by airing a news story developed by the journalism students at Appleton East High School and co-produced with NBC26.
The students chose the topic of school safety from a student's point of view.
Below is the story presented by the journalism class at Appleton East High School:
With school shootings in our everyday conversations school safety has been on many people's minds. To get to the heart of the issue we talked about school safety and what's being done about it with the people directly affected; the students.
"I actually fear every day that I wouldn't be able to come to school. I kind of feel unsafe sometimes," says Sandy Thao, a sophomore at Appleton East High School.
On December 3rd, and Oshkosh west student stabbed a school resources officer and both were shot in the struggle. Being so close to home this sparked many students' fears.
"Then once one [shooting] happened here, in Oshkosh, it started to make me think there's probably something that could happen here," sophomore Gio Leon says.
Despite these fears, some students feel safe at Appleton East.
"The thing that happened at Oshkosh west kid of was an eye-opener but I think there at East and in Appleton, we have a really safe community," says Will Smestad, also a sophomore and Appleton East High School.
Senior, Helena Marks also says she feels safe in her everyday life at East. "We have a lot of features and a lot of caring adults who are always there protecting us," she says.
Appleton East High School uses A.L.I.C.E. the active shooter training protocol. The acronym stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, Evacuate. The training program has been used at Appleton East for the last 5 years.
The school also has Sources of Strength, a mental health support system. Students say it’s programs like these that make them feel connected to the school’s community.
“We’re entrusted with the greatest possession that someone has and it’s their children,” says Dr. Matt Mineau, the principal at Appleton East High School.
“I think safety starts with relationships,” adds Dr. Mineau. “So, if we don’t take the time to really acknowledge and figure out who our students are and where they’re coming from that’s the number one.”
Students like sophomore, Ellie Debbert say when it comes to safety there is always room for improvement.
“I think that if we keep track of how much of a threat kids are then teachers could be aware and monitor certain kids. I think that could be really helpful in preventing bad situations,” she says.
In the fall of 2017, Appleton East High School was put on lockdown after a nearby armed bank robbery. Some students say that experience has helped them better prepare for a dangerous situation.
“It was very eye-opening,” says senior, Victoria Ylizaliturri. “We had an example and if anything did happen again I can just go back to that time and say, I was fine then so I will be fine if it happens again,” Ylizaliturri adds.
The school district has taken steps this year to improve student safety and well-being with the addition of the Zen Den a mental health rest area and we hope to see more improvements in school safety programs in the future.
This article was co-produced by the following students at Appleton East High School: Isabel DeBruin, Alyssa Junkins, Jack Pingel, Jenna Quinn, Sean Sanders, Kaden Van de Loo and Evan Wood. A special thanks goes out to their teacher, Mr Corey Otis to help make this project come to life. .
