The threat came in an e-mailed letter from the principal to the entire student body: Stop following the anonymous Instagram accounts, or face suspension.When Principal David Marmor of Francis Lewis High School in Queens discovered two accounts — one which posted fight videos and the other which included vulgar content that in some cases targeted specific students — he didn’t hesitate to act. In addition to threatening suspension, he promised to cancel all “celebratory events” like pep rallies and prom until the accounts were deleted or lost all their followers — a dramatic step that raised questions about the line between students’ free speech online and punishable behavior. First reported by Chalkbeat New York, the case immediately caught our attention. Social media's impact on our lives as teens can't be overstated. Anonymous Instagram pages that share confessions, photos, and videos about school communities have become increasingly common. Sometimes the content is harmless. Other times, it feeds into vicious bullying. We called up Chalkbeat’s Alex Zimmerman to break down what happened at Francis Lewis and discuss the broader implications of Marmor’s actions. Should schools be allowed to regulate students’ social media use? If so, did this principal go too far?Learn more about our work at https://bellvoices.org.—This episode was hosted by Shoaa Khan and Jose Santana. It was produced by Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mia Lobel, Mira Gordon, and Taylor McGraw, and made in collaboration with Amy Zimmer and Alex Zimmerman from Chalkbeat New York.Music from Blue Dot sessions.This episode was made possible in part by the Summerfield Foundation, the Pinkerton Foundation, FJC, and Hindenburg Systems.

Instagram, Cyberbullying and Free Speech at a Queens School

It’s clear that disproportionate access to high school journalism is a consequence of broader education inequities. But, what about the news industry itself? In this episode, professional journalists shed light on the lack of diversity in the news industry, which is about 80% white, and less representative of the general population than other fields according to Pew Research. The lack of journalism opportunities for students of color feeds the diversity problem in the field.Despite the odds, this has been a year of success for school newspapers, new and old. And they get their due recognition at an annual student journalism conference held at Baruch College. Great expectations, breath-holding moments of tension and unexpected triumphs all come to the fore in this fourth and final episode of Missing Voices. All eyes – and hopefully your ears – are on these high school journalists vying for glory in between the margins.——The Missing Voices series was reported by Wesley Almanzar, Jadelyn Camey, Fredlove Deshommes, Edward Mui and Jayden Williams. Editing and production support from Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, Abē Levine and Taylor McGraw.Scoring and sound mixing from Peter Leonard. Music from Blue Dot Sessions.Made possible with support from the Education Writers Association and the Pinkerton Foundation.

Missing Voices: Part 4 – Where Do We Go from Here?

In the summer of 2022, Press Pass NYC launched a fellowship for aspiring high school student journalists. A cohort of students from around NYC began their journeys in a summer bootcamp, where they learned the basics of journalistic writing and reporting.“It brings like a huge responsibility, knowing that you're going to take all this information and bring it back to the school,” said Ashley Conde Lopez, reporter for The Writer’s Weekly at the Academy for Young Writers in Brooklyn.Our team followed these Press Pass Fellows from bootcamp through the school year to see the results of their training and preparation. Three schools are featured here: The Institute for Health Professions at Cambria Heights; The Academy for Young Writers; and Health, Education and Research Occupations (H.E.R.O.) High School. Can these three schools  overcome the obstacles of an unequal education system to create successful student newspapers? Tune in to find out.——The Missing Voices series was reported by Wesley Almanzar, Jadelyn Camey, Fredlove Deshommes, Edward Mui and Jayden Williams. Editing and production support from Sabrina DuQuesnay, Mira Gordon, Abē Levine and Taylor McGraw.Scoring and sound mixing from Peter Leonard. Music from Blue Dot Sessions.Made possible with support from the Education Writers Association and the Pinkerton Foundation.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Missing Voices: Part 3 – Trials and Triumphs

Seemingly every New York City high school used to have a student newspaper. That’s what we learned on our trip earlier this year to the Center for Brooklyn History’s archived high school newspaper collection. Today, few NYC high schools have student publications of any kind.What happened? Where did all the school newspapers go? To find some answers, we sat down with Keith Hefner, founder of Youth Communication, a nonprofit that has been publishing high school students’ stories for more than 40 years.Then, we meet the adult and students behind Press Pass NYC,  an organization dedicated to bringing student newspapers back. It’s an ambitious mission. What will it take for them to succeed?To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Missing Voices: Part 2 — The Quest to Revive High School Journalism

New York City is the media capital of the world, but not for its youth. Just one in four public high schools has a student newspaper these days. And there are big disparities in access by race and class.In this system of haves and have nots Townsend Harris High School in Queens is definitely among the haves. Its student newspaper, The Classic, has received national recognition for hard-hitting reporting in recent years.Meanwhile, at Pace High School in Manhattan, dedicated students and a veteran English teacher are defying the odds by building The Pacer from scratch.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

Missing Voices: Part 1 — Tale of Two School Newspapers

When you think about New York City, what do you think of? Wall Street? Fancy business ventures? The place where dreams come true? That’s certainly how I thought of it when I moved here from the Philippines at age seven.But there’s another side to the city.In 2021, about 1 in 10 public school students experienced some type of homelessness. That’s around 100,000 children. Quite surprising for the financial capital of the world. In the city of billionaires and luxury brands, how could so many not have access to something as basic and foundational to life as stable housing?To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 10: Student Homelessness in a City of Riches

In many schools across the country, high schoolers have the opportunity to take AP, or Advanced Placement, classes. These high-level courses are designed to introduce students to the rigor and expectations of higher education, and to help them get a leg up in the college application process. Some students look forward to the challenge, while others dread the stress and anxiety they bring.In this episode, I dive into the reasons for inequitable AP access across New York City, how this reality affects students and what further actions are being taken to make change.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 9: The AP Course Divide

The transition from middle school to high school can be socially bewildering for many young people, but for New York City public school students like me it can also mean adjusting to drastically different economic and racial demographics. I went from my neighborhood school in the Bronx to a predominantly white school in Midtown, Manhattan.At my middle school, I took an art class that had no art teacher. At my new school, the basement has ten studios completely dedicated to music. There’s also a black box theater, a dance studio, an art studio, and a film lab. These are just some of the differences I noticed.Seeing these drastic disparities in the opportunities given to students got me thinking: if all public school students deserve an arts education, then why has a complete music and arts program become a luxury and a privilege? What do students lose when they don’t have the opportunity to explore their extracurricular passions?Join me and a few guests as we discuss the unspoken price of creativity in New York City public schools. To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 8: The Price of Creativity

In 1946, President Harry Truman signed the National School Lunch Act. It aimed to “provide nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to children each school day.” More than 60 years later, Michelle Obama championed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which required schools to provide students with healthier lunches. Since 2017, New York City has provided free breakfast and lunch to all public school students. These acts and reforms are great; they seek to ensure that all students receive nutritional meals at school. But in practice, let’s just say the results are… mixed.Students sit and eat in the cafeteria every day, and yet conversations about education often leave out this crucial element of our daily lives as students. In this episode I document the quality of school lunches through the perspective of those who eat them, students. I also chat with one of my teachers, who used to help develop school lunch menus and guided me in my search for answers about how lunchtime can be improved.Get ready listeners, because we’re about to have a food fight!To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 7: Food Fight — The Battle for Better School Lunches

When I was in seventh grade, something changed in my school. The administration at the Bronx Academy of Letters was implementing a strange new policy called “Yondr.” Haven’t heard of it? Neither had I.Yondr is a company that makes lockable pouches for smartphones to create “phone-free spaces for artists, educators, organizations, and individuals.” The idea is that it helps with student learning by removing distractions from the classroom.As you might expect, students had some questions about the new policy, many of which I was wondering myself: Is the Yondr phone policy underestimating student maturity? How is the policy affecting student-teacher relationships?To get some answers, I talk to teachers, my principal, students who have experience with Yondr and even representatives from the company. Listen to this episode to for an inside look at the impact of restrictive cell phone policies on schools like mine.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 6: Locked Up Phones

At my high school, Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, almost two thirds of the student body identify as people of color. When students witnessed a teacher make a racially insensitive comment during class, they knew something had to be done. The administration stepped in and facilitated a restorative circle, but the impacted students left feeling unsatisfied.This incident offers a lens into an ongoing debate about how teachers and school staff should handle acts of racial discrimination to properly protect students of color in public schools.In this episode, I went looking for answers. I spoke with students who are active members of my school’s Black Student Union, one of my guidance counselors and my vice principal to figure out what needs to happen for our school to live up to its anti-racist commitment. Plus, I spoke with the NYC Department of Education’s Student Voice Manager to understand how the school system handles incidents of racism and discrimination in schools.Reporting resources for students:Report student-to-student discrimination, intimidation, and harassment, including sexual harassment and/or bullying: https://www.nycenet.edu/bullyingreportingOffice of Equal Opportunity reporting form (for adult-to-student discrimination): https://www.nycenet.edu/oeoYou can also call 718-935-2288 or email the Office of Safety and Youth Development (OSYD) at RespectforAll@schools.nyc.gov—To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

Ep. 5: Responding to Racism in Schools

If you grew up in New York City, chances are you have heard of the Regents. The Regents are standardized exams that students across the State of New York have to pass in order to graduate and earn a diploma that’s recognized by the State Board of Regents.Some words people I spoke to used to describe these exams: “A mess,” “stressful,” “Frankenstein” and “inequitable.” Today, there are Regents tests for ten core subjects, including U.S. History, English Language Arts and Chemistry. Most New York high school students must pass five of them in order to graduate.New York is one of only eight states that mandate high school exit exams. As so many other states are turning to alternative forms of assessing academic proficiency, why does New York still use these standardized tests as a graduation requirement? How should graduation readiness be evaluated?To all our New Yorkers, get ready for an educational flashback that you probably hoped would stay in the past.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 4: Examining the Regents

Every year thousands of students fill out the FAFSA, a form designed to help working class families receive financial aid for college. Simple right? Fill out a form, get some money, go to college. Well, not quite.The FAFSA isn’t as easy to complete as it may seem. It encompasses 180 questions ranging from your family dynamics, to how much you and your parents earn, to citizenship and immigration status. Not only are there many questions, but they are often confusing. Those in most need of the FAFSA’s support, low-income and first-gen students, are often the ones who struggle the most. Some students’ parents don’t speak English well, so they have to take on the extra effort of translating. Others are in unique living situations, and might not fit neatly into the categories the FAFSA wants. The process is time-consuming and draining.Check out my episode to hear directly from students who have experience filling out the form, as well as people who provide FAFSA and college readiness support, such as the guidance counselors.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 3: The FAFSA Frustration

Are women more likely to contract STDs? Can HIV be cured by having sex with a virgin? Is using two condoms safer than using one?These are only a handful of the questions about sex that exist in the minds of high schoolers across the city. But because this topic often evokes discomfort and embarrassment, from both adults and young people, questions like these often go unasked. They become misconceptions. In the age of social media, where students like myself get a lot of their information about sex from the internet, misconceptions like these can and do cause real harm.According to the New York City Department of Education, schools are only required to teach an HIV and AIDS curriculum. Sometimes even these few lessons are pushed to the margins because of parental disapproval or time concerns.The result? A glaring void in comprehensive instruction on safe sex and healthy relationships. That’s a problem.In this episode, you’ll hear more about the current standard of sex education in New York City high schools, how it affects teenagers and what needs to change.So, get comfortable listeners, because we need to talk about sex.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 2: We Need to Talk About Sex

My classmates are not happy with my school’s 8:20 a.m. start time, and honestly, neither am I. I’ve missed that first bell so many times. I had 12 tardies and 4 detentions in the past quarter alone, just from being late. And I’m not just late, I’m tired. When I get home, I’m physically exhausted, my bones hurt, and I just want to go to bed straight away. But as a junior, each month is very important. College applications, SATs, and the course work keeps getting harder. I just have too many responsibilities: homework, the internships I need for college applications, and the side jobs to support my family. School start times are a policy choice.Who's calling the shots when it comes to school start times? Is student health and well-being even on the agenda? To get some answers, I chatted with sleep experts, fellow students and even the head of my school.Join me as I navigate through the maze of early mornings, shedding light on the detrimental impact of sleep deprivation on our lives. Will we ever see efforts to start school later? What needs to be done? Trust me, this is one podcast episode you don't want to hit the snooze button on.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

Ep. 1: Wake Up Call – School Should Start Later

For the first time ever New Yorkers have the opportunity to vote in a citywide participatory budgeting initiative. It’s not people on the ballot. It’s people’s money — tax dollars – and how to spend them. All New Yorkers age 11 and up can have a say in how $5 million of taxpayer money is spent. On the ballot this year are projects like financial literacy classes for youth in the Bronx, revitalizing cinema deserts in Canarsie to anti-violence and restorative justice programming in the Lower East Side.This episode of P.S. Weekly  explores the People's Money initiative and the people behind it.To vote, go to participate.nyc.gov. Voting closes June 25, 2023.

P.S. 18: The People's Money

Mental health, perhaps more than ever, is a topic of conversation for the masses. Clinical terms like “triggered” and “anxiety” crop up in everyday discussion. Tik Tok channels dedicated to self-help and self-care offer tips on living your best life. And when it comes to young people, public leaders, from doctors to principals are trying new preventive approaches, like tele-therapy, to reach students before they’re in crisis. In the midst of a generational shift on mental health, we wanted to elevate the voices of young people who are thinking deeply about it. This is a conversation on mental health featuring Miseducation interns Wesley Almanzar, Fredlove Deshommes, Jose Santana and Nusrath Uddin. They discuss what mental health means to them and how they navigate the topic in their lives in and out of school.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to The Bell.

P.S. 17: Teens Talking to Teens About Mental Health

As we kick off our first ever spring fundraising drive, one of our student reporters shares what working with The Bell has meant to him.Donate at give.bellvoices.org.

A Message from Jayden Williams

Every year The Bell trains a group of high school students from across New York City in audio journalism. These student interns report and produce original stories for the Miseducation podcast. Over the past five months, this year’s reporters have been hard at work on their episodes. The theme of the upcoming season is Questioning the Status Quo. Each student picked an aspect of the New York City education system that we’ve all gotten really used to. Things that students have just come to accept as normal.Through in-depth research and reporting, they are making a case for what needs to change. On this week’s episode, we’re sharing a preview of what they’ve been working on. To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Stitcher

P.S. 16: Questioning the Status Quo — Sneak Peek

Between Clarksdale and Cleveland on a quiet stretch of Highway 61 in the Mississippi Delta lies a town called Mound Bayou.Mound Bayou has more churches than stoplights, more vacant stores than occupied ones — a place that appears forgotten. But locals — folks who grew up here and stayed — wear these special glasses that allow them to see the town as it used to be.Put the glasses on and an overgrown lot transforms into the first Olympic size swimming pool available to Black Mississippians. The boarded up brick building on the corner turns into a bustling bank that holds more Black wealth than anywhere else in the state. The crumbling circular drive across the street backs up with traffic into a hospital that delivered more than 100,000 Black babies. For the better part of a century, this unremarkable, hollowed-out town was an oasis of Black self-sufficiency in a state brimming with racial terror.Last month, during mid-winter break, the Miseducation staff joined The Bell’s executive director Taylor McGraw, who recently moved back to Mississippi, for a week-long road trip from Memphis to New Orleans. We journeyed through barbecue joints, civil rights museums, blues clubs, the cold halls of the Mississippi legislature, and the windy banks of the Mississippi River. Of all the places we stopped, Mound Bayou, this tiny dot on a map, left the biggest mark.This is the story of Mound Bayou.To learn more about the Mound Bayou Museum of African American Culture and History, visit moundbayoumuseum.com.To join the conversation, send us a message and follow us on Twitter and Instagram.Never miss an episode! Subscribe on Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Google Play | StitcherDonate to our work at https://give.bellvoices.org.

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