![IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Junior Zalie Mann performs “I Love to Cry at Weddings,” an ensemble piece from the fall musical Sweet Charity, to prospective students during the Fine Arts Showcase on Wednesday, Nov. 8. The showcase is a compilation of performances and demonstrations from each fine arts strand offered at McCallum. This show is put on so that prospective students can see if they are interested in joining an academy or major.
Sweet Charity originally ran the weekends of Sept. 28 and Oct. 8, but made a comeback for the Fine Arts Showcase.
“[Being at the front in the spotlight] is my favorite part of the whole dance, so I was super happy to be on stage performing and smiling at the audience,” Mann said.
Mann performed in both the musical theatre performance and dance excerpt “Ethereal,” a contemporary piece choreographed by the new dance director Terrance Carson, in the showcase. With also being a dance ambassador, Mann got to talk about what MAC dance is, her experience and answer any questions the aspiring arts majors and their parents may have.
Caption by Maya Tackett.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/53321803427_47cd17fe70_o-1-1200x800.jpg)
![SPREADING THE JOY: Sophomore Chim Becker poses with sophomores Cozbi Sims and Lou Davidson while manning a table at the Hispanic Heritage treat day during lunch of Sept 28. Becker is a part of the students of color alliance, who put together the activity to raise money for their club.
“It [the stand] was really fun because McCallum has a lot of latino kids,” Becker said. “And I think it was nice that I could share the stuff that I usually just have at home with people who have never tried it before.”
Becker recognizes the importance of celebrating Hispanic heritage at Mac.
“I think its important to celebrate,” Becker said. “Because our culture is awesome and super cool, and everybody should be able to learn about other cultures of the world.”
Caption by JoJo Barnard.](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/53221601352_4127a81c41_o-1200x675.jpg)
As editors of The Pearl Post, we thought our voices were valued. Our school administration and district have repeatedly shared our work, amplified our achievements and told us that our opinions matter. Then, as soon as our reporting brought unwanted attention to them, they suspended our adviser.
This past November, The Pearl Post wrote an article about how the Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) staff COVID-19 vaccine mandate led Greta Enszer, our only librarian, to leave Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS). Although we were well within our rights as student journalists, the DPMHS administration threatened disciplinary action against our adviser if we did not take Enszer’s name out of the story. We refused and for several months no official action was taken.
On Thursday, LAUSD suspended our journalism adviser. The three-day unpaid suspension will go into effect after the appeal process. Although more than half our staff who were involved in this incident graduated in June, we will not be silent.
In California, student journalists are granted much of the same rights as professional journalists, per California Ed Code 48907. These rights mean that the district has no authority to retaliate against our adviser or to censor the content we cover. Therefore, they also have no authority to demand that we remove Enszer’s name. Enszer claimed that we violated HIPAA, but no one from the school district gave us any names of unvaccinated staff so there was no such violation.
We also consulted with a representative from the Student Press Law Center and have confirmed that we never had a legal obligation to remove Enszer’s name from the story. We believe the story was newsworthy because all changes in staff significantly affect our small student body and therefore needed to remain on our website.
The district’s flagrant violation of California Ed Code 48907 is unbelievably ironic at DPMHS, a journalism magnet. Through this action, the administration has proven that, despite teaching us about article writing, photography, journalism history and press law, they don’t respect us as student journalists.
Despite this setback, we will continue to fight for our rights as student journalists and produce timely and accurate coverage of our school and community.
This story was originally published on The Pearl Post on September 6, 2022.
