Misrepresenting our Student's Words in the Press

We remember the days when local papers provided a vital source of coverage of their surrounding communities, and dedicated investigative reporters helped expose scandals and hold officials accountable for their decisions. Unfortunately, there has been a significant shift in reporting lately, with so few reporters employed, thanks to a decline in advertising revenue and the consolidation of hundreds of local papers under a single owner. The result is that these local papers rely more on contractors and articles submitted by PR firms. We've seen several recent articles about CASD with no individual writer listed, some of which show as being "authored" by the paper's owner, MediaNews Group, Inc. In our experience, articles are often submitted by local school districts and the papers run them as fillers. We found many of our readers were not aware of this phenomenon, and they found this information enlightening.

So now to today's topic - we were excited to see coverage in the Daily Local News celebrating CASD's graduating class. This article had a byline from Ginger Dunbar, one of the paper's writers, but included photos submitted by the district. However, when we read the article, some of the reporting did not match what we witnessed as audience members at the graduation ceremony. In quoting Valedictorian, Riya Patel's commencement address, the writer added the following line: "She added that they, along with other Chester County students, learned how to combat racism and discrimination during the school spirit summit held earlier this year at their high school."

We reviewed the ceremony video to ensure that we didn't miss these comments. Riya never mentioned the SPIRIT Summit at all, and did not imply she had learned how to combat racism from an event or even from district personnel. If Ms. Dunbar attended the commencement ceremony and no mention of the SPIRIT Summit took place, the only possible conclusion is that district personnel provided these comments when they submitted the photographs for the article. [I note that Liz Muirhead asked directly on the district's facebook page if they were given an opportunity to review the article, and they denied that they had any involvement.]

This appears to be another attempt by district personnel to gaslight our community. Why would Ms. Dunbar mention an event as part of Riya's speech that Riya never mentioned? We've heard from students about the lack of input they had in the preparation of the summit and the embarrassment they felt over the solutions that their administrative had them present. The further attempts to publicize the SPIRIT Summit and give it credibility only gives us more reasons to question the authenticity of CASD's role in the Summit and the student's input to the SPIRIT organization. 

When we confirmed that we did not hear Riya say anything about the Spirit Summit, and that this article misrepresented her comments, we reached out to her. Being the mature, articulate, and kind young woman that she is, she emailed Ginger Dunbar for the correction. Additionally, it was brought to our attention that Riya was referred to as a commencement speaker instead of the valedictorian giving the valedictorian speech. Riya gave us permission to publish her email to the Daily Local News, which contextualizes her comments on how she and her classmates learned to combat racism and discrimination.

From: Riya Patel
Date: June 9, 2019 at 12:01:26 AM EDT 
To: gdunbar@21st-centurymedia.com 
Subject: Coatesville Area Senior High School Article 

Hello Ms. Dunbar! My name is Riya Patel, and I’d like to personally thank you for the lovely article on my graduation ceremony. However, I came across a paragraph in which it seems my words were taken out of context. 

The paragraph says, “She added that they, along with other Chester County students, learned how to combat racism and discrimination during the school spirit summit held earlier this year at their high school.”

I’d like to point out that my quotes about discrimination in my speech were added simply because I knew how much the community had an impact on our perspectives. Students residing in Coatesville saw discrimination first-hand, and that’s how we were effectively able to combat it and speak up. The summits were helpful, but they were not the events that showed my peers and myself the reality of discrimination. Instead, it was the daily hardships and ultimately our lives that taught us how to combat discrimination. 

Therefore, I’d kindly ask that you either remove the paragraph or change the wording. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your reply.

 Thanks! Riya Patel