Investigative News
"BCCHS coach faces molestation charges"
As a first-time staff writer for my school's publication during my sophomore year, I was eager to report, ready to take whatever story assignment was offered. During this time, a rumor was going around my school's campus about a sports coach who was arrested for sexual misconduct. These rumors proved true during my staff's brainstorming session for our December issue when our news editor pitched a story to us about this case. The Birmingham Community Charter High School (BCCHS) girls' lacrosse coach was arrested in November of 2018 on 24 counts of sexual misconduct. Although my school isn't a part of BCCHS, my school was allowed to play on BCCHS's school’s teams, so he also coached some of my classmates. Because of how heavy this topic was, my teacher had another classmate write the story with me. We dug through court records and made countless calls and emails to police stations, lawyers and school administration. This was an incredibly difficult topic to cover and I was able to learn a lot about the justice system and how to properly report on it. After about a month of us working on this article, it was finally published in early December.
This story was also featured in The Pearl Post's December 2018 newspaper edition. To view it, click here.
This is an excerpt from the L.A. Daily News article where our publication is mentioned and our reporting is used. Click here to read the article.
A local news publication, the L.A. Daily News, used a quote from our principal that we included in this article and used some of our reporting in their news story. Click here to read the article.
Former lacrosse coach Scott Silva was sentenced on June 19.
Photo released by LAPD
Recognition
This article was named as a finalist for the "Best News Story" category at the Los Angeles Press Club Awards on May 14, 2019.
@ThePearlPost keeps you updated on this ongoing investigation thanks to Casey & Itzel.
@ThePearlPost keeps you updated on this ongoing investigation thanks to Casey & Itzel.
— 2018-19 Feature Editor David Eskichyan
After our initial article was published in December 2018, we began receiving new information on his case. Over the course of the next year, we wrote five follow-up articles, with the last one being written in September 2019. These follow-up stories also involved a lot of researching and investigating. We were in constant communication with the LAUSD Deputy Chief Communications office, administration from BCCHS and attorneys. This required a lot of work and we constantly had to double-check our information since we were the only publication consistently reporting on this case. We constantly reached out to police stations by phone and email. This experience really helped me develop my reporting abilities. Below are links to each follow-up story in chronological order.
Follow-Up Stories
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"English teacher position eliminated due to low enrollment"
My school's enrollment issues became clear during my sophomore year when we lost an English teaching position. That year, our ninth-grade English teacher was promoted to magnet coordinator, leaving that position open. Our school's enrollment number was one student away from meeting the cut-off, meaning that we would not be receiving the funds necessary to hire a new teacher to fill this position. This was a huge issue at our school since that meant we now only had two English teachers for all four grade levels. Both teachers didn't have room for a conference period and even our journalism adviser had to start teaching an English course. When it came to reporting on this, I had to interview multiple staff on our school's administration to solidify enrollment numbers. I also made sure to get in contact with students whose schedules were impacted by the eliminated position.
Infographic by Itzel Luna
Follow-Up Stories
Enrollment continued to be a significant issue at our school throughout my time on staff. Since I had already covered it for our publication, I continued to report on our school's fluctuating enrollment for the past two years. Below are two follow-up stories I wrote.
DPMHS enrollment has been decreasing since the 2015-16 school year. During the 2020-21 academic school year, enrollment decreased to 251 students, which is down from 317 students during the 2019-20 school year.
"Recent school threat worries students about campus safety"
In late January 2019, a threat was found written in a girls' bathroom at my school. This threat resulted in a school police investigation and increased police presence on our campus. A classmate and I were assigned to report on this investigation. We interviewed our school principal on the nature of the threat as well as students regarding whether they feel safe on campus.
Los Angeles Police patrolled Daniel Pearl Magnet High School on Feb. 1, 2020, due to a threat received the day before. The threat was written on one of the school's girls' bathroom stalls and it prompted a police investigation.
Photo by David Eskichyan
"Student distrust in administration increased by perceived lack of response to reports"
This article was assigned to me and another staff writer for our Special Reports section. We were asked to investigate the increased distrust among students toward administration. We had been noticing a lot of complaints from students, who claimed that they weren't being heard when it came to instances of bullying. We found two students who had dealt with bullying, reported it and saw little to no disciplinary action toward the bully. This was a difficult story to report on. We had extensive interviews with our principal about how punishments are chosen and researched our district's policy online in order to ensure that we were reported factual information. We were also dealing with very sensitive information from students. One of the students we interviewed and included in the story told us on record that she was bullied by a group of students on campus. We used this information in our story and after it was published, she reached out in anger, claiming that she never gave us permission to use that information. This led to us having multiple meetings with her where we played her the recorded interview, in which she explicitly gave consent. This experience taught me the importance of recording interviews and being as clear as possible with the interviewees.