On the school beat

The next Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New York Times may be roaming the halls of Long Beach High School. He or she may just be sitting in room 214, attending Joe Jeremias's fourth-period journalism class.

"It's a crash course in journalism basics," Jeremias said of the program's first six weeks. Students will devote the rest of the school year to putting those basics into practice by publishing the school's 76-year-old newspaper,

The Tide.

"Journalism has always been on my mind," said third-year journalism student Laura Durandis. "I like to write, and I think it'll put me in the right direction."

Durandis began the program as a sophomore, and plays an active role in the newspaper (as well as the school’s African American Club and cheerleading). A lover of celebrity news and gossip, she started an entertainment column in last year's Tide. She also wrote a story on last spring's MTA fare hikes and how they would affect families' weekend trips in to the city.

Durandis’s classmate Geoff Noss had no interest in writing before he took up journalism, and freely acknowledged his deficiencies. "I was a terrible writer," said Noss, a junior who is in his second year of the program. "Ever since I took journalism, my writing has improved."

Noss has a new-found passion for publishing technology — layout and design done mostly with Adobe Photoshop and InDesign. He also enjoys writing news on any topic. "Whether it's new lockers in the school or the new president of a student organization," Noss said, adding that he enjoys interviewing people to get their views on a particular topic. His story on the National Honor Society tutoring program appeared on the front page of The Tide last spring.

Editor in Chief Jessica Amen is also spending her second year in The Tide’s newsroom. Amen, a junior, was an editor and photographer last year. "I like having more say with what goes on in the newspaper," she said, but she added that she wants the entire class involved in deciding what goes in. This year she aims to cover more stories before they happen.

Amen said she enjoys writing about school sports and, like many of the students, opinion pieces. "It's the only time I get to express my opinion about some things," she said. Last year she wrote an essay on how her peers can be more environmentally friendly.

Lucas Schott, also a junior, said that while any topic can be explored online, he favors the printed word. "I always thought it was better to pick up a copy of the paper at a newsstand and read it," Schott said.

He always had an interest in newspapers, he said, but also enjoys writing fiction pieces. He enjoys controversy, and loves to tackle any topic about which people express strong opinions, including gay marriage, abortion and politics. As a first-year contributor, he said he wants to bring more hard news to the paper.

With a tentative six-week production schedule, Jeremias said his class will ideally print eight issues a year. Whether students reach or exceed that goal, however, will depend on their team effort of assigning, researching and writing stories, taking photos and doing design, layout and production.

When Jeremias arrived in the school district eight years ago, The Tide was an extracurricular activity, but it has since become part of the English department curriculum. Students can begin the journalism class as sophomores and enroll as many times as they like — or they can make it an extracurricular activity, because the paper still has a club component.

Jeremias said that many students want to write editorials, but need to learn that they have to back up their opinions. "They're talking loud and saying nothing," he said of many of their efforts.

Last spring The Tide published an op-ed by then senior Bailey Robertson in which she denounced state and national minimum-age laws, calling them ineffective and arbitrary. As an example, she noted that at 17 she was legally permitted to have sex with any adult she pleased and drive a car, but could not vote in a presidential election or buy tobacco products.

Robertson went on to argue that the age restriction on alcohol is just as futile. "Alcohol is easy to come by and easy to abuse," she wrote, "but, maybe if it weren't made precious by law, LBHS students wouldn't pound it back until they collapse every weekend."

The Tide attracted wider attention last year when then senior Mallorie Faubert wrote about her dissatisfaction with the academics at the high school in the 2007-08 school year. When Principal Nick Restivo prohibited the publication of the story, Faubert sent it to other news outlets like the Herald, Newsday and the Long Island Press, which ran the story in a June 2008 issue.

Jeremias said his students are passionate about many issues that stretch far beyond Long Beach, but he is teaching them to understand that "the story on the new teacher is just as

important."

Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.