News Gathering & Literacy

David Nguyen - the powerlifter

He could see his reflection on the gym floor in front of the black mat he was standing on. There were only two sounds in the room: the announcer’s commentary and his breathing. He decided to focus on the latter. Inhale. Exhale.

The announcer’s encouragement echoed around the gym. “C’mon David let’s see it!” he shouted. Sophomore David Nguyen kept breathing. The weight was resting on his shoulders, his three spotters hovered anxiously around him. He bent his knees. It took less than 30 seconds for Nguyen to lift 177.5 kilos from a squatting position. “That was just a national record, ladies and gentlemen,” shouted the announcer.

I included this because I wrote this profile on David Nguyen three months after he set this record. And we didn't know about until then, either. I wasn't in the room when he set this record, but I knew that the lead of this story needed to be a narrative of that moment. So, I did what any journalist would do: I stalked his Instagram. And his friends' Instagrams. And the owner of the competition's Instagram. They all posted videos. I must have watched each of them 20 times. And then some. I wrote down what the announcer said. I listened to the audio with earbuds in and the volume turned all the way up. I got what I needed to write the lead that this story needed to have. Sometimes, circumstances aren't ideal. I interviewed the superintendent of my school district for 20 minutes my sophomore year and after five, the audio stopped recording. I just had to resolve that. In journalism, sometimes you just have to resolve things. Or make do with what you have. That requires tenacity and good reporting, and I'm always going to be willing to do that.

Read the full story on page 10 here.

Voting survey

I distributed a survey to every student on campus of eligible voting age. The survey asked questions about party affiliation, plans to vote and the important issues. This was used as part of a package about the 2018 elections. After all the responses were gathered, I organized them on a giant Excel spreadsheet and sorted them by answer. This wasn't the only survey I've done this way - I've surveyed everything from sleeping habits to student opinions on healthcare. Here's why: not everyone wants to read a long article. But sometimes, students need to eat their spinach. Important issues, like elections, directly impact students. If a survey and an infographic is what it takes to disseminate information and cater to our audience, then that's what needs to be done.

See it on pages 8-9 here.

I reviewed a yearly report issued by the Department of Education for this data. I also corroborated the national data with internal data from HCPS that was presented during suspension meetings.

I had to reschedule the interview with Harrison Peters three times because sometimes, that's just how reporting goes. I'm glad I stuck with it because Peters was leading a district-wide initiative to address implicit biases in schools. He also gave me access to HCPS plans for alternatives to suspensions and how the district planned to implement them. I also looked over HCPS suspension totals, which I asked district spokesperson Tanya Arja for access to.

I spoke with several student leaders in Men of Vision as well as the district leader of the organization to understand the role of these clubs on high school campuses.

I compared the national rates of suspensions for minority students to the HCPS rates for the past decade. They matched.

Peters also gave me access to detailed alternative plans. I also spoke with HCPS spokesperson Tanya Arja about these plans to understand them better.

Racial discrimination in HCPS

Male students of color are 5.3 times more likely to be suspended than white students for the same infractions. The U.S. Department of Education releases a report that outlines school suspensions each year. The disproportionate punishment of male students of color is a trend that has persisted for the past several decades.

Hillsborough County Public Schools (HCPS) mirrors this national trend. HCPS has placed a focus on improving graduation rates, advocating for 90 percent of each graduating class to walk across the stage by 2020. The current rate of suspension is working against that goal.

In the 2018-19 school year, students served 95,000 suspension days in the district. Because of this, a large group of students have a compromised shot at graduating. “Kids, unfortunately, fight and at some schools it maybe ten days and it may be a five-day suspension at other schools. So, we know that attendance, behavior and course performance are the three main determinants for high school graduation,” Chief of Schools Harrison Peters said in an interview. “For us, attendance has been astronomically important. So, when we talk about suspending students and you’re in the eighth grade, if you have one suspension, it decreases your opportunity to graduate exponentially.”

Creating a positive student culture

“We need consistency. Each school needs to have a school-wide behavior plan. Not just a system of consequences, but a system of rewards,” Peters said. “We need to ensure that adults that are interacting with students have this mindset and that they don’t have these implicit biases that could persuade their decisions. What I’ve found is, when committing the same infractions, most times students of color are disciplined more

harshly.”

The goal is to create schools centered around a positive student culture, but the harsh punishment of students of color isn’t always conscious. For English teacher Suzanne Cooks, creating positivity is the most important thing for students who feel disenfranchised because of this trend. Men of Vision (and its companion club, Women of Virtue) seeks to motivate students to pursue something bigger than themselves after high school.

“I think that just the positive energy that Men of Vision brings to Hillsborough High School will cause other black male students to start recognizing what Men of Vision is and that they can go there instead of to their seventh period and just have a little bit of positiveness brought to them, we’re at least hoping to establish that as part of the culture,” Cooks said. “What I would want for them to get out of the club is for them to really know their worth and then really know that they can make a difference in the world.”

This sentiment, according to Cooks, that is of utmost importance. “I’m a firm believer in the culture of the school, I’m a firm believer in people valuing education and I’m a firm believer in understanding why people behave the way they do. If we don’t figure out why the behavior exists, then it’s not going to go away,” she said.

Combating implicit biases

“We do a lot of thinking about how we ensure kids stay in school. Not that we don’t suspend them but finding

alternatives for keeping kids in school because we know when we keep them in school, they graduate,” Peters said. “But sometimes we have implicit biases that come into play when we’re doing discipline, it often creeps into the consequences that administrators make.”

For Peters, alternative plans are especially crucial considering the historic disparities faced by students of color because of zero tolerance policies. “There are very few things that you absolutely have to be suspended for,” Peters said. “You need to put in preventative things like restorative practice and restorative justice because there is no research that says suspension works."

Zero tolerance education systems operate on an absolute, inflexible set of consequences regardless of the infraction, whereas restorative practices focus more on resolving the issue through a combination of school, parent and community involvement. HCPS has been making a conscious effort to transition to this method over the past two years. The Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports (PBIS) system is being explored by schools in the county to lessen the divides in the current punishment rates. It focuses on achieving both positive social and learning outcomes rather than punishment.

“I’m an old guy, but we’ve been suspending kids for years. There is no data that supports that suspension works because it’s not a deterrent and it doesn’t change behavior,” Peters said. “Is it to punish children? Or is it really to think through how do I help you to make better choices? It doesn’t mean I don’t think that you need consequences and it doesn’t mean that you’re not held accountable, but if I teach you about making better decisions, I help you and lead and guide you, and teach you to break down barriers, then that’s a more long-term impact.”

View the full story on pages 8-9 here.