By Nancy Azzam

Black ink all over our hands, wrinkled papers folded in half tied with a string, and what feels like hundreds of classrooms to deliver them to: these are things that are Plaid Press-specific and what seniors will all miss as we leave the 2025 school year.

Newspapers have been viewed as an outdated and a nearly dead form of reporting current events. Despite this, the Plaid Press has worked to bring them back to life this year through creative stories and innovative designs. Writing for the newspaper has given us all a voice and a platform to be heard. Students this year have been capable of expressing themselves in ways that could not be achieved anywhere other than room A-11.

The journalism program has become such an important and influential part of our high school careers. As an editor-in-chief, I have been able to see our staff not only find their passions for journalism but find themselves as people growing throughout the years. Our small classroom has become a family where bonds have been formed and strengthened as time has flown by.

The abilities to communicate, connect, and contribute to a community extending beyond our classroom has radiated through each writer and editor this past year. Most importantly, we have provided news centered around what it really means to be a Granada Hills Charter (GHC) student. From the first Staff Masked Singer performance to how to survive the college application season, we have covered it all. We share the events of GHC clubs, accomplishments of our sports and academic teams, and opinions on pressing issues in our community in the hope that our readers will be able to take away just as much from our hard work and dedication as we have.

Speaking with the heads of the school, reaching out and interviewing people who may spark potential stories, and plastering posters and stacks of papers in teachers’ rooms have created experiences and articles that we can be proud to share with our huge student population.

Additionally, this year has allowed us to expand our Plaid Press family to include more cartoonists to make our newspaper that much more creative.

Developing through black-and-white pages has allowed us to grow as active listeners, understand varying perspectives, and establish clear ideas with confidence. This is all thanks to our wonderful advisor Melissa Spaulding, who has never failed to make journalism more than a class and more than a hobby. She has become more than a teacher in each of our lives as we go to her for advice and answers to our questions. We watch as her crocheted aquarium fills with her favorite marine life in the corner of her room, and update her on our latest news in our own lives.

Spaulding has become someone we can truly label as a friend, as she continues to encourage and inspire us to be our authentic selves through our writing and outside of it.

Our hands will forever be stained with the black ink of expression through words both on and off the pages of the Plaid Press and as Editors-in-Chief for the 2025 school year, we can proudly say that this is a year we will forever remember and be grateful for. As seniors leaving behind our student newspaper, we hope that all future writers and editors find the same passion for the paper as we did and explore journalism in new and exciting ways that continue to bring the school the news it wants.