High School Newspapers

As a high school senior and editor of Santa Barbara High School’s newspaper, the Forge, I was interested to read of the financial demise of numerous Los Angeles-area high school newspapers. The problems faced by these high school publications are disturbing and sad.

As school districts across the state face the fact that budgets need to be reduced, high school papers are an easy target for cuts. Our school district is no exception, and as a result the Forge’s staff and adviser have been forced to look in new directions for the money we need to print our paper. Thanks to a combination of hard work by the students and concern on the part of the school’s administration, we are able to publish an eight-page issue every other week. It isn’t easy to acquire the money we need, but involving the entire staff in fund-raising is an important part of the process. Every student is required to call potential advertisers and collect the money from these ads.

The dilemma of apathy among the student body is perhaps even more worthy of the attention of school administrations than budget woes. Journalism is exciting and educational, and the experience of working as a team to accomplish a common goal may well be as important as learning how to write a lead or put text in columns.

ROBIN ADLER

Santa Barbara