Hello, reader. My name is Ben Hopkins. You may have heard of me before. If you haven’t, then you are probably reading this from the distant future. If you want to know who I am, just ask the teachers about the best senior class ever! Anyways, I am now the first editor for the politics section of the BCA school newspaper. That means that I (and my successors) process all article submissions for this section before they can be published. But what does that mean? What is this section? What is and isn’t allowed? How does the whole system work? Those are some of the questions that I hope that this article will explain.

 

Currently, the politics section has two functions. The first is to explain current events and politics on a local, regional, national, and international level. Articles explaining anything, from why the potholes on Eagle Road aren’t getting filled to summaries of wars in the Middle East, are welcome. The other is to host campaign platforms for student president and senate candidates. Anybody can submit articles. Yes, that means anybody, even the class clown. 

 

As the first editor of this section, I have to lay some ground rules for submissions. The main one is this: we will only promote what is good, true, and beautiful. This means (but is not limited to):

 

• No profanity of any kind

• No racist, sexist, or otherwise demeaning messages directed to any person or specific group of people

• No conspiracy theories with doubtful or unfounded claims

• All articles must be (somewhat) serious, unless they are satirical in nature

• No disrespecting faculty or other students (save that for the opinion section)

• Please, do not disrespect or ridicule our current government leaders. Yes, we may hate whoever they are, but God has chosen them as leaders, and the Bible calls us to respect the government.

• Do not write articles or campaigns that attack a previous article or campaign. The politics section simply puts opinions out there, it is not for arguing them.

 

As of my writing this, if you want to publish something, you must send it to one of the student editors. They will look it over and give you feedback and edits. Once those are done, the student editors will send it to the teacher currently running the newspaper, who will post it. I am fully aware that this process might change as time goes on, so I encourage you to check up with your editor on how the process works.

 

The final topic that I want to discuss are the roles of editor and reporter. The editor must be an unbiased, reliable person. They must be able to take in any submissions, offer constructive criticism, and turn in edited articles promptly to the teacher in charge. Reporters must also be unbiased, reliable, and trustworthy. They must give interviews to either the editor or the teacher in charge of the newspaper.

 

There, that should be about it. All I can say now is start writing! The newspaper only runs through the contributions of people like you, reader. Anything goes!