It isn’t just older adults that typically work in front of or behind the cameras getting the news out to the public.

For the last seven years, Patrick Henry High School (PHHS) students have been producing, writing, editing, and broadcasting news. 

After introducing video production a few years prior, PHHS Video Production and Broadcast Journalism Teacher Mark Abbott had one journalism broadcast class and a single broadcast every other week. 

Prior to this role, Abbott worked in stage production and was a stagehand for local concerts. Now, he has three broadcast classes with more than 100 students total who put together a weekly broadcast, which is reviewed and approved by the administration, for their PHHS community. 

Moreover, the students run most of the production. Many choose their own segments and topics to cover. 

“I often allow them to assign the roles in their groups as long as things go smoothly,” Abbott said. “We have specific roles that students trade off with when we record the anchors, sports and ASB segments in the production studio.” 

However, Abbott is always available to support students and provide guidance. 

“[Some students] need help finding things in the school and community,” Abbott explained. “In addition, people in the school come to me to get their stories told so I pass them on to student groups. To be honest, it’s a big school [with] 2,500 students but sometimes it’s a challenge finding enough stories that students want to cover, so we have to be creative.” 

So far, students have covered everything from their associated student body, climate change, school events, community issues and more. 

“When producing stories, I typically take on many roles, like planning the stories, filming, and editing the final cut,” said PHHS senior and one of Abbott’s broadcast students Lucia Morrison. 

She further detailed that because Abbott gives his students “[…] the freedom to make videos about whatever we want that is related to school, we come up with video ideas that are about student issues and events. We report on a wide variety of topics, from [PHHS] organizations like Link Crew to informative videos about college applications.”

In taking this class, Abbott explained that students have learned how to be efficient, interact with others and ask questions and manage their time, which are skills often required for the job market. 

“I think the course is important because it teaches leadership and it taught me how to take initiative,” Morrison said. “When creating projects, I learned the importance of reaching out to people and working in a team.”

Relatedly, students in the broadcast class can get college credit through City, Mesa and Palomar Community Colleges, according to Abbott. The credits are transferable at the state college level. 

“In addition, I think it’s an important way for schools to get out information to students as well as promote and showcase all of the positive things going on at the school,” Abbott said.

Last year, students from Abbott’s broadcast class did the production for a documentary on the early years of PHHS with past National Football League (NFL) Producer David Plaut.

The documentary was recently televised and a trailer can be accessed from the @givemelibertydoc YouTube channel. 

Current broadcasts, information and more can be found at: https://sites.google.com/view/phhsbroadcast/broadcast-2023-2024.

(Courtesy photo)