Commitment to Diversity

One of the most important and meaningful components of CavPlex for the school community is the focus on local stories and events. As the news director for news show, RNE-TV Live, and the Editor-in-Chief for Tapestry, the literary magazine, I have worked to maintain the program's commitment to diversity in staffing, content, and sources. Richland Northeast High School is located in an area known as “The International Corridor.” The stories we report represent the diversity of both our school community and the surrounding area. To ensure the demographics of staff and variety of programming corresponds and is relevant to the community, we recruit students to participate and plan coverage that will be varied and diverse. Representation is an important component of creating a dynamic news team in which different cultures, values, and perspectives are welcome and encouraged.

Having diversity in stories that I cover has been extremely important and a cornerstone of my work as a journalist. I seek out different voices from genders, races, and perspectives, as well as stories that tackled complex issues that have impacted my school and the surrounding area; one of these stories was about gun violence. The area my school is located experiences a high rate of gun violence and many of the people impacted, and the perpetrators, are youth. Exploring this issue that intimately affects students that are typically underrepresented in the media was important to me as a journalist. It allowed me to seek out organizations that are working to make a positive impact to reduce the rate of gun violence locally. Reporting on stories that are relevant to my school community has been fundamental to my approach.

CavPlex Convergence Media upholds the Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics to promote voices from diverse backgrounds in its journalism program. CavPlex Convergence Media believes the staff should be made up of people from diverse backgrounds, including race, color, gender, ethnicity, creed, nationality, sexual orientation, religion, disabilities, and class. Any student that attends Richland Northeast High School,  enrolled in a CavPlex Convergence Media class, and maintains a “C” average at the end of the school year is eligible to participate in any of the journalism programs.

As News Director for RNE-TV Live, I work to ensure the program has balanced coverage as the standard where a variety of content is included in each episode. Segments include news, interest, sports, word of the day, live interviews, man on the street, announcements and student branded segments. 

As the Editor-in-Chief of Tapestry, our Literary Magazine, I strive, along with the staff, to have submissions of varied examples from various literary and visual types. Submissions of poetry, short stories, personal narrative, essays, music, and visual arts were solicited. Announcements were regularly made during the morning news show to promote the literary magazine, seek submissions, and inform the students of the timeline. The literary magazine staff has extended the deadline for submissions to March 21, 2025. We have decided on a theme and are working on layout and design and plan to begin the selection process after March 22. We plan to have production complete by the first of May.

From the perspective as a journalist, my practice is to seek out a wide variety of voices and opinions when creating a story. Having diversity of thought represented provides a more complete and accurate final product. To help ensure that we interview a variety of sources on our news show, we keep a list of people that have appeared on the news show, whether that be in video or live segments. If a person has been on more than two times, the staff member has to discuss options for an alternative guest or source with a news director or an advisor. 

Richland Northeast High School participates in the Community Eligibility Program, which is a Federal program that offers free breakfasts and lunches to all students based on the rate of households that qualify for SNAP or other food assistance programs. 

According to the South Carolina School Report Card for Richland Northeast High School, the graduation rate for Northeast is 75.2%, which can be compared with an average district graduation rate of 86.2% and a state graduation rate of 83.8%.

According to the South Carolina School Report Card for Richland Northeast High School, Northeast scored a 39, or Unsatisfactory for 2023-2024, the lowest rating category. Northeast was one of 49 schools across the state in (elementary, middle, and high) to receive this rating.

The 2023-2024 School Improvement Council Parent Report for Richland Northeast High School states that student demographics at Northeast are: African American, 63.1%, White, 10.6%, Asian, 1.5%; Hispanic, 20.5%; Other Races and Ethnicities, 0.5%, and Two or More, 3.6%.

The 2023-2024 South Carolina School Report Card for Richland Northeast High School shows that 75.8% of students were in poverty (TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, foster child, homeless or migrant).

The 2023-2024 South Carolina School Report Card for Richland School District Two shows that 62.3% of students were in poverty (TANF, Medicaid, SNAP, foster child, homeless or migrant).