My Journalism teacher is a psychopath Pt. I

I have decided that my journalism teacher, (also my club coordinator) is officially insane. I took the class hoping to be able to exercise my journalism skills and have at least one class of it under my belt before I went to college. That's not really happening. The class is centered around our closed-circuit news broadcast that the Eagle News Club (which I'm in) gives every Friday morning. I expected to be writing a newspaper that would be interesting. I was hoping I could help make students want to buy it. Instead, I got suckered into being the producer of the news, which takes up all my class time and leaves me stressed.

Mrs. Brown, the teacher and coordinator, is of the opinion that there is nothing else going on in anyone's lives except Eagle News. One day a few weeks ago, she pulled me aside and told me that I had to make Eagle News my #1 priority the next week because it was a big broadcast. I replied, "I can't, not next week."

She looked kind of shocked and said, "What?"

I said, "I can't next week because my biggest band competition of the year is next Saturday, and I can't afford to stay after any day."

She replied, "Well, you're just gonna have to make Eagle News your priority. If you're not willing to, why did you take the position of producer?"

Incensed, I said, "Because I never asked for the position. Marching Band is more important to me than the news cast. I'm sorry, but if you think someone else will do the job, then go ahead and give it to somebody else."

She stood for a minute, I think because she was surprised I talked back to her, and finally said, "I guess I'll have to get Brandy to help you."

I said, "Well, I guess you will," and walked back into the classroom.

I was so mad. How dare she tell me that marching band, which I have been in for 6 years, is not as important as some stupid newscast, of which I've only been involved in for about a month and a half, being producer for only a week? I was determined not to miss any of practice that week because it was so important, and then after me worrying and stressing over it, it turned out we didn't even do a broadcast because of the protest earlier in the week and the death of Ashton. (See last blog.)

This week, we had to fit about 30 minutes of news had to fit into ten minutes, because that's all we are allotted. I was in charge of editing a segment about global warming. I took about six minutes of students watching the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore, then had a friend interview the teacher as to why she showed it, and a student giving his explanation of global warming. I managed to edit what I had down to about 3 minutes, but Mrs. Brown freaks out and starts saying how we can't have any segment over 2.5 minutes. (Yes, she said 2.5.) So I snip and cut more and more until I have it down to 2 minutes, but then she says she wants me to do a voiceover on one of the most important parts. In the particular bit, Al Gore was facing away from the camera into a window, referring to Hurricane Katrina and saying "How in God's name could this happen here?" The deaf old bat says, "Now what's the point here? He's not even facing the camera, and you can't hear him." I told her that was the point, and that I could hear it just fine, but she still cut that frame out. As soon as she left the computer, I undid the cut and put it right back in there.

Unfortunately, my bell to my next class just rang, but I'll write more in a part II blog, I promise.

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