Balmeo story ideas

STORY IDEA #1

Increased awareness of mental health problems and efforts to reduce the stigma around mental health issues have led more students than ever to reach out for help, but now there’s a new problem: there aren’t enough services available to meet the need.

MISSION, NEED
The mission of this story would be to illuminate and explain the problem, show its impact, highlight possible solutions from other communities and share what members of the community are planning to do about it.

WHY NOW?
We’re at a critical point right now with students who really need help not getting the help they need for months, if at all. This is leading some to give up on getting help and could put kids in serious danger.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What has led to the increase in demand for mental health services?
Where are referrals coming from?
What factors influence the services available?
What happens to students who need help and can’t get it in a timely fashion?
What, if anything, is being done to address the issue?

SOURCES
The face: students, parents
The authority: guidance counselors, admin
The experts: mental health professionals, DHS, researchers

ISSUES, SOLUTIONS
Confidentiality around discussing mental health issues
Getting ahold of DHS folks can be difficult — lots of emails, voicemails
Difficult to quantify the issue

BEST MEDIA AND WHY
I could see this as a great print package (that also goes online) with several alt story forms. I think you could also do a great radio story with the voices of students and parents who have experienced the frustration of not getting the help they need when they need it. I also think some interactive graphics for numbers or maps would make sense for this story.

VISUALS
My students would probably use art and illustration for this particular story because photographs would be challenging. There are also visual possibilities with maps and graphics.

ANGLES, MATERIALS
Main story: What has led to the increase in demand, what happens when help is deferred, what’s being done about it
Supporting angle: How the industry is responding
Supporting angle: What it’s like for a parent who can’t get their child help
Supporting angle: Alternatives to the traditional support model (virtual, etc)

ALT COPY
Timeline: evolution of the problem
Infographic: supply and demand (i.e. # of requests, wait time, # of facilities)
Q+A: mental health professional in the area

LEGAL, ETHICAL, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Special consideration needs to be made for minors discussing their mental health. The student journalists also have a responsibility to offer solutions rather than merely stopping at the problem.

STORY IDEA #2

With increased pressure on schools in Oregon to increase graduation rates, particularly of demographic subgroups (low-income, special education, etc), the use of online credit recovery courses has become commonplace. However, many question the quality of these courses and the claim that they are equivalent to a year-long high school course in the same subject.

MISSION, NEED
The mission of this story would be to discover when and how often these online courses are being used by students to meet graduation requirements and

WHY NOW?
We suspect that enrollment in Odyssey (the online recovery course our school uses) is the highest it’s ever been. It makes sense to cover it now because it’s become so widespread.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
How many students use online credit recovery courses to meet grad requirements?
How many students do more than one course?
When in the year and in their academic careers are they doing these courses?
Which courses are students failing most often and why?
How do the courses compare to the semester-long courses they replace?

SOURCES
The face: students taking Odyssey
The authority: admin
The experts: guidance counselors, teachers
The research: outside research on online high school courses, graduation rates

ISSUES, SOLUTIONS
The administration may not want the outside world to know how many students are using credit recovery classes to meet their requirements. The students may not want to talk openly about failing courses. Technically, they could probably ask for enrollment numbers with a FOIA request if it came to that. Generally speaking, all of the key stakeholders may see nothing wrong because they all benefit from it.

BEST MEDIA AND WHY
This story could be told through infographics and writing for print and online. Video or audio would be possible if student journalists could get into one of the Odyssey class periods, capture some footage of the environment and interview students.

VISUALS
Information graphics would be super helpful here. It would be great to see the numbers in graphic form, maybe some samples of the coursework.

ANGLES, MATERIALS
Main story: how Odyssey works, how kids end up doing it, and exploration of its overall quality
Sidebar: what is the cost of offering credit recovery as an option
Sidebar: cheating the system

ALT COPY
Data visualizations for enrollment numbers, repeaters, etc
Diagram of typical assessment
Quote reel of student voices

LEGAL, ETHICAL, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Confidentiality of student grades and academic records would be my first concern. I’d also be somewhat concerned about demonizing the students or their guidance counselors for using this solution. I’d hope to push them to work hard to be fair to all sides and see the situation in all of its complexity.

STORY IDEA #3

Long-time teachers, including the student activities director, often lament how attendance has dropped dramatically at all extracurricular events. The theory is that the advent of smartphones and social media has made it so that kids don’t need to go to events in order to socialize anymore and are instead choosing to do it through tech.

MISSION, NEED
The mission of this story would be to first verify whether or not attendance has actually diminished outside of school events and then, if so, to examine all of the factors influencing that, including the tech aspect.

WHY NOW?
With attendance at school events decreasing comes decreased student activities income, and it affects the social fabric of the school. It makes sense now because if the trend continues, it may drive changes in the way that the school and the student leadership program engages with students.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Has attendance at out-of-school events decreased in the past 20-ish years? Can we measure that?
What factors influence student attendance at school events?
What benefit is derived from student attendance at school events, and why might we want to preserve that?
Who is affected by the change?

SOURCES
The face: students, leadership kids, athletes
The authority: leadership adviser, athletic director, principal
The experts: outside researchers on teens, tech, school involvement

ISSUES, SOLUTIONS
Much of the opinions of the stakeholders involved may be speculative or based in broad generalization. In order to get past that, student journalists would need to try to quantify the change. There is also the danger that a preconceived notion of the cause may blid reporters to other possible factors that could have influenced the change.

BEST MEDIA AND WHY
Lots of photos for this one. The yearbook and historic photos could be good here. THis would make a great audio/video story as well, with many opportunities to capture nat sound.

VISUALS
Students in the stands, old yearbook photos, infographics, quote reel

ANGLES, MATERIALS
Main story: How has event attendance changed in recent history, and what are the causes of that change? What’s the impact?
Sidebar: What have those who’ve been here awhile noticed
Sidebar: How have other student activities programs adapted?
Sidebar: What does the research say about the effects of student school involvement

ALT COPY
Q+A with the leadership adviser
Now/Then photos comparison of similar events from different years
Calendar of events and ways to get involved

LEGAL, ETHICAL, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The first thing that comes to mind is ensuring we have permission to use the old photos. I also think that, ethically, we’d need to be aware of the potential bias going into the story with a theory.

STORY IDEA #4

Temporary youth detention facilities are overflowing, leading our local parole officer to have to make difficult decisions about dealing with students who have violated the law.

MISSION, NEED
The purpose of this story would be to explain the problem and its many contributing factors, discuss the course of action being used to address it, and explore the solutions being put into place by other communities and schools dealing with the same problem. It’s very needed, as this is a problem that directly affects not only the students involved but the school population as a whole.

WHY NOW?
The situation is urgent. It needs to be resolved asap.

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
What is leading to the overcrowding? Is there an increase in offenses? Have the laws changed? The personnel?
What happens when more students commit crimes than there is space to house?
How many of these students are repeat offenders? What other programs are they part of?
What would need to be done to fix the problem? Is there an alternative to expanding the facility?

SOURCES
The face: Student offenders
The authority: The parole officer, administrators
The expert: Researchers on youth corrections facilities, how schools deal with crime

ISSUES, SOLUTIONS
It may be difficult to get students to talk on the record. The parole officer may be hesitant to comment in fear that it would appear to his superiors like he’s whining about it. The admin aren’t going to be thrilled the kids are writing about kids committing crimes.

BEST MEDIA AND WHY
Print and online so that they have the ability to package lots of information together. Video of interview with the parole officer would be great to hear his voice and put a human side to his frustration. It would be amazing if the student journalists could visit the actual detention facility.

VISUALS
Video, infographics, maybe an illustration

ANGLES, MATERIALS
Main story: What’s happening, why is it happening, and what’s being done about it
Sidebar: Youth detention and school crime handling elsewhere, alternatives
Sidebar: Historical comparison of school crime rates

ALT COPY
Map with pullouts of cases elsewhere
Infographics for historical data, detention numbers
Tables or graphs showing types of offenses, number of repeats

LEGAL, ETHICAL, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Obviously, any story about minors committing crimes is sensitive and needs to be handled carefully. We would need to be careful not to commit libel when it comes to making statements about the department and its officers/personnel.