McKinney journalists get the story right

When students take to the streets to tell the real stories that professional media get wrong, the power of student journalism does make a difference in a school, a community and the nation.

In this first story of the year for the JEA SPRC Making A Difference Project, the students at McKinney High School in Texas reported on the in famous ‘Pool Party’ video that went viral during the summer. This difficult story about the clash between police officers and African American teens in this small town in Texas created much national rumor and inaccurate reporting in the public media. Student journalists at McKinney High School would have none of this shoddy reporting so they reported it themselves.

According to Alyssa Boehringer, the Manestreamnews.com adviser, “It wasn’t until the infamous McKinney “pool party video” went viral that students realized the topic of police brutality against African Americans could come to our small Texas town. But it did. And with all the hateful comments on conservative blogs, inaccurate details in the New York Times and sharp vitriol in almost every Facebook comment, student journalists chose to ignore the rhetoric and tell a firsthand account of what happened when a local cop manhandled a 14-year-old black girl and pulled a gun on two boys who came to her aid.”

Student journalists were there, and the story they tell can be found at this link on their school news media site.

http://manestreamnews.com/8414/home/mckinney-pool-party-makes-splash-across-nation/

This student run media website is advised by Alyssa Boehringer and Lori Oglesbee-Petter as an after school activity.