Mental health is currently a large issue at our school and the amount of students with mental disorders appears to be on the rise. Our staff dedicated our February 2016 edition to mental health related topics, so I decided to focus the inDepth around the basics of mental disorders, informing our community on how to spot signs of illnesses, how they develop and how to help those who are struggling. I interviewed a representative from the Mental Health Foundation of West Michigan, a limited license psychologist, a social worker and a student.
Coming from a conservative Christian community, I was excited to cover the controversial topic of sexual orientation. We have a growing population of LGBTQ students and our school is learning to adjust to the different sexual preferences. My goal was to inform my peers of the multiple sexes, genders and sexualities. For this article, I interviewed our school social worker, our LGBTQ club adviser and students. It was important that this piece remained unbiased because of the prominent religious presence in our area.
I decided to cover college preparation for our October 2015 paper. I thought it would be helpful for all grade levels to show the different options they have for post-secondary education and what steps they should be taking. A big push in our community right now is for more students to enroll in some form of education program after high school. I had to remain unbiased, considering each student may have a different preference about their next step. I did not include interviews that stated merely opinion without any support. I interviewed our school social worker, a college adviser, our technical school director and students.