Introducing The Hawks' Nest

From the Inaugural Issue (Oct. 2024)
by Grace Warrington, Editor-in-chief

Introducing The Hawks’ Nest, CVU’s first student-run newspaper! We are a group of students, led by three juniors, Grace Warrington '26, Lily Gruber '26, and Karmen Wilbur '26.

The idea began in 2022. The editorial staff proposed the idea last year to faculty and administration. We worked over the summer to formalize the plan. This culminated in the very newspaper you’re holding in your hands right now!

We think it is important for a high school to have a school newspaper because it is an excellent way to build community and hear everyone’s voices and diverse opinions, along with giving students a chance to practice their journalistic skills. Not only that, but it allows the high school to participate in and support locally run news. We hope that this newspaper can become an outlet for everyone to engage in and representative of the voice of our student body.

CVU has not had a student-run newspaper in recent memory, much less a printed one. The closest we’ve come recently was a long running paper called ‘The Champlain Valley Chronicle,’ however it was run through a journalism class and writing opportunities were not open to the whole student body.

While there are fewer school newspapers now than ones that existed in the past, some Vermont public high schools still support journalistic work (e.g. Essex’s news site The Hive and Mt. Mansfield Union High School with Paw Print).

The newspaper is being run through a C3 time (every Tuesday in the Main Office Classroom) along with an after-school contingent. The initial issues may be varied by way of when they come out, but we will attempt to settle into a monthly schedule by winter. Please drop by, and we will always welcome new members!

The importance for a school newspaper is stressed by Club advisor Justin Chapman: “It's a civic necessity. It's integral to the functioning of any democratic institution, including and especially public schools. I'm not sure if you're aware of this or not, but the state of Vermont has even passed laws protecting the sanctity of student journalists in secondary schools. That makes it very difficult for administrations to suppress student speech. There's a reason Jefferson referred to the press as the fourth pillar of American Democracy.”