City leaders and residents from Coppell, Flower Mound and Lewisville gathered two weeks ago for its tri-city neighborhood summit on a Saturday morning.
The Sidekick was there.
Each month, the city council and Coppell ISD board of trustees hold their meetings. The Sidekick is there.
Pinkerton Elementary School is closing following this school year. Not only has The Sidekick been there to cover the consolidation, but has also been producing podcasts with Pinkerton students and staff to celebrate the campus’s history.
When Coppell athletes suit up at Buddy Echols Field or CHS Arena, coaches, players and parents can rely on coverage by scholastic journalists from The Sidekick, KCBY-TV and Round-Up yearbook.
Communities need journalism. There are stories to be told and fewer local news sources to tell them. That is where scholastic journalism comes into play.
Do not just take it from me. Take it directly from the student journalists. They are the ones telling the stories. Conducting the interviews. Designing the pages. Taking the photos. Recording the podcasts. Updating social media.
Scholastic journalists do the work and embed themselves into their communities.
Take Sidekick sports photography editor Kayla Nguyen. She has had the best seat in the house for the past three years. Class 6A football playoffs. Prom and homecoming dances. Classrooms throughout CHS.
As Nguyen said, we connect to our audience as scholastic journalists because we are closest to our news. Everything we report connects to the community because we are immersed in it. Nguyen finds covering board meetings interesting – something she never imagined as a student.
Consider Sidekick editor-in-chief Sukirtha Muthiah. She leads the largest newspaper staff in CHS history. She walked into our D115 newsroom three years ago expecting to tell solely high school stories. As a scholastic journalist, Muthiah has connected with important people in our community, ranging from Pinkerton kindergarteners to Superintendent Dr. Brad Hunt.
The emotion that filled the room as trustees made the challenging decision to close Pinkerton still resonates with Muthiah. She felt the emotion of this moment as a reporter.
Scholastic journalism is real and matters more than people realize. I am incredibly proud to sit at a desk and walk around a newsroom where I see the vital news of our community come to life.
Because if it is happening in our community, The Sidekick will be there.
Follow @CHSCampusNews on X.
