Decibel
They Started A Newspaper. Then Their School Became The Story.
Clip | 7m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
The uncertain future of a middle school, as reported by their newspaper class.
Tatiana Brown-Gomez launched a student paper at Dobie Middle School this year. But when news broke in April that Dobie might be shut down in order to prevent a state takeover of the whole Austin Independent School District, her staff found themselves at the center of a story that the entire city was watching.
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Decibel is a local public television program presented by Austin PBS
Funding for Decibel is provided in part by Texas Mutual and Roxanne Elder & Scott Borders
Decibel
They Started A Newspaper. Then Their School Became The Story.
Clip | 7m 28sVideo has Closed Captions
Tatiana Brown-Gomez launched a student paper at Dobie Middle School this year. But when news broke in April that Dobie might be shut down in order to prevent a state takeover of the whole Austin Independent School District, her staff found themselves at the center of a story that the entire city was watching.
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(students chattering) - Two more minutes, girls.
Two more minutes to be in class.
Right, Dulce?
Good morning.
(soft music) My name is Tatiana Brown-Gomez, and I am a sixth grade and eighth grade ELA teacher.
We have all this different afterschool stuff, but there was not a newspaper.
Sadie!
I hope you're not, oh Lord, and Amy too.
In middle schools it's not common to have a newspaper because there is no, like, middle school newspaper curriculum like that.
But I really enjoyed it when I was in high school and I saw a lot of potential in just how they wrote and I was like, "Something about this is telling me they just need a little bit of their own voice and that's gonna help put the cherry on top for sure."
So I went ahead and started newspaper this year.
(playful music) You still get the interview.
It would be really good if we got some information on that at that assembly.
Like what happened with that.
That first pitch day, it was hard.
- We're doing the work on LeBron.
- [Tatiana] Everything is completely new.
- I was kind of nervous.
I wanted to be like, I wanted to get it.
(keys tapping) I feel like I'm actually doing a real job.
But like, I'm not just going to classes.
I actually, I'm dedicated to do something, you know?
(Evelin speaks in foreign language) - Another challenge was grammar because a lot of our students' first language isn't English.
If I'm struggling with it and English is my first language, then I can't imagine having it be your second language.
But do the seventh graders on here first.
But, it was really cool to see them get into the habit of being like, "Oh, well let's write about the pep rally."
"Oh, let's write about band."
Oh let's write about this and this and that.
- That was my first actual story and I was like, "You know what?
I finally know what to do."
(Evelin speaks in foreign language) - April 3rd is when we got an email and that was Thursday at 6:00.
They were having a performance, a dance performance, at the same time.
So you know, people pull out their phones, they have this community emailing that's being sent.
It's saying that Dobie has three options now, to be turned into a charter school, to be permanently closed or to be temporary closed and reimagined, is the wording they used.
(students chattering) We were projected to get another F this school year, making that four years.
So if we got five years in a row of an F, that would allow for a TEA takeover, and as a district put it, that's not something they're willing to risk.
So everybody is freaking out obviously and being like, "Oh well what do we do?"
- [Student] Put it on people's doors.
- I heard it in newspaper class and so she wanted us to know about it but not to be scared.
- Monday's the next day that we have newspaper, so I told them.
- We started discussing about it like, "How do you guys feel?"
"What should we do about it?"
It was immediate like "Y'all, what are we gonna do?
How are we gonna save Dobie?"
(upbeat music) - [Student] No, you're gonna submit it.
- [Student] Ivy was working on the letters.
- And how do you feel about Dobie shutting down?
- I actually have a job to do.
You know, I have to save the school, I have to talk about it.
(Evelin speaks in foreign language) - We were like, "Okay, let's start social media."
(notification dinging) So it's like, "Okay, what do students think?
What do staff think?
What do parents think?"
- I wanted to do a video.
- And they're gonna have to move schools and I don't think like that's fair to them.
- [Ivy] So we started recording everyone.
We were like, what's your opinion?
How do you feel about Dobie shutting down?
(Evelin speaks in foreign language) - When will this decision be made?
That's a good question.
We've been trying to keep people updated as well.
These are, when you should be here at the community meeting or this is when this big board meeting is happening.
We kind of just went, go, go, go.
And it hasn't really stopped since then.
- [Student] He's always telling us to do things.
- [Student] He's gonna be bossy.
- [Tatiana] The not release?
'Cause that would have to be like a whole separate thing.
(student speaks faintly) - Like what is that?
It started out with a lot of energy.
It's kind of died down now as we've been in this weird limbo.
We don't know what's necessarily going to happen.
When we first got that email, and this is gonna make me somewhat emotional because immediately they were like, "Oh is it because we're bad?"
They immediately saw it as, everybody else in this district sees our students as bad students, as bad people.
It's just when you get news like this and it's being plastered around all media platforms that they're an F, they're an F, they're an F, they're an F. And it's because of their low performance.
That's one phrasing I kept seeing a lot was that they're not performing as they should be.
And it disheartened me so much because I've seen what they could do in the cosmetology, in barber, in medical, in their classes.
Like that's a big thing that nobody thinks our students can do because they see these stereotypes that are around here.
- [Student] Ooh!
(melancholy music) (student speaking faintly) - Like I've been very honest with my students and being like, "I'm worn out.
I know you're worn out.
We've been fighting really hard, but we still have to put our voices out there."
It doesn't necessarily have to be like, "Oh now save Dobie."
But it is about the students.
What do y'all need and what do you want?
What do you deserve?
- Miss, you just love- - I'm gonna do things.
- [Student] He's gonna be bossy.
- [Student] It's called newspaper!
- So once again, that's something that we could report on.
It's hard because we don't know a lot of information right now, but the community meeting...
I'm not sure exactly when the decision will be made.
I would love for my newspaper students to report on it so we can get that closure too.
Because like I said, our following is majority students.
- Literally, like, let's go.
- Yeah, it means "Let's go."
- I want them to understand that they truly have learned a lot of skills and now they have opened so many different avenues for themselves.
- And it's showing that like they need us.
So like.
I never wrote like this before.
I feel like it's gonna improve my writing skills and my thinking skills and I feel like in my future, people are gonna look at my resume and they'll be like, "Whoa, she's in a newspaper class?
Okay, she knows what she's doing."
(Evelin speaks in foreign language) (interviewer speaks in foreign language) (Evelin speaks in foreign language) (interviewer speaks in foreign language) (melancholy music continues)
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