News, tips and advice from the Quill and Scroll International Honor Society.
Compiled and written by Marni Wax

The Lede:

This is America?

A student at a Texas High School has been suspended for sitting during the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance at his school. Other students in Texas have been kicked off their public school’s football team for kneeling during the national anthem. How did we get here? Why is that some people feel such protests disrespect the country and should be banned? Why did Vice President Mike Pence make a show of his patriotism last weekend by walking out of an Indianapolis Colts game?

If you remember the values upon which Quill and Scroll was founded, you’ll remember that the core value is “Truth.” The second candle we light during the initiation ceremony represents “Learning,” and the third is “Leadership.” Here’s the text from our Initiation Ritual:

It is necessary that those trained in journalistic work should be leaders themselves. They should, whether reporter, cartoonist, artist or editor, possess the personality to attract followers, to lead crusades, to state facts clearly and concisely, to portray truth, to act wisely in times of stress and through it all to lead without dictating — to guide, but not to drive.

If your public school district is acting in a way to suppress its students First Amendment rights, then you have an obligation to be leaders, to be teachers and to help people understand why others are acting they way they are. Are there similar protests in your school? What’s your district’s policy? Is it in line with the First Amendment rights of students? Whose opinion matters here? What can you learn? What is the truth?

Is the president a friend of the First Amendment?

“It is frankly disgusting the way the press is able to write whatever they want to write, and people should look into it,” he said in advance of a meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Click to read more.

Surprises after shots being fired.

The National Rifle Association and the Trump administration joined forces last Thursday in a SUPER surprising acceptance of putting a restriction on Americans’ access to guns. But of course there was a specific angle: to regulate the “bump stock” devices (You know…the Las Vegas shooter used? Who would have thought some common sense?).

Already reversing Obama’s legacy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has reversed an Obama-era policy that defined transgender workers as protected under employment discrimination laws. This (not so shocking) policy reversal of what qualifies as employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act comes down to how people think a person’s sex is decided.

It’s an honor:

Online News Association shares materials

Quill and Scroll board member Julie Dodd attended the Online News Association’s ONA17 conference and has compiled a report that links you to all sorts of tech goodies.

What’s it like to be a part of something bigger than yourself?

Go to our Facebook page to learn how to share your testimony about what it means to be a member of Quill and Scroll. Or you can go to the Quill and Scroll website to give a more detailed story about your connection to Q&S.

Attention:

PDF of fall 2017 issue of Q&S magazine up on issu to be sent to members via mail in mid-October

CALLING ALL ADVISORS!

Does anyone have any footage of their induction ceremonies! We would love to feature your students in a video! Contact us at [email protected] for more information.

What’s Viral:

You don’t know what you’ve got, until it’s gone.

What’s happening to high school journalism in Colorado? It’s in danger of disappearing, even at some of the state’s largest high schools.

No pain, no game (or just no game).

The U.S. men’s soccer team will not be going to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and not because of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The team just wasn’t good enough. What do your school’s soccer coach and players think about this setback in the U.S.’s road to soccer relevance?

Just a Thought:

The actual photo is the only thing that’s still with photography.

Trends in photography are rapidly evolving and yet we always seem to circle back to the basics and fundamentals of where everything began (this year is of course, no change). The list of trends for this year is very much for fashion and advertising-related photography, and through idea that “less is more.”

Video technology moves faster than the video.

Want to know a secret (that isn’t a secret at all…just look around!) In the next few years, it will take someone more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will exist…IN EACH MONTH!! So this means…almost 17,000 hours of video content will cross the network before 2021…check out how!