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A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
A SERVICE OF OHIO'S PUBLIC BROADCASTING STATIONS
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Sunday morning, October 14, Columbus Dispatch readers learned what reporters Jennifer Smith Richards and Jill Riepenhoff had discovered over months of tedious digging, poking and questioning: there are some bad apples in the barrel of otherwise trustworthy and inspiring educators in our Ohio classrooms.
Photos of normal looking women and men stared from the pages of the paper beside stories that were impossible to believe. Similar pictures had probably appeared in school yearbooks. Coaches, teachers, advisors and administrators, who had been responsible for guiding and grading hundreds of our children, had failed their own personal tests of moral character.
How did these people and the system fail us and our children? How was this uncovered? What was the reporter's first lead? Why did The Dispatch pursue this story? At what risk? For what benefit? And, most importantly, with what result?
The initial series generated countless follow up stories and fostered positive and negative reactions from a wide range of interested parties. Parents, administrators, educators, the Ohio teachers unions and the Ohio Department of Education all weighed in. A dust storm of activity arose from capitol square and filtered into committee hearing rooms, legislative chambers and the Governor's office. It seems that everyone is clamoring for change.
Our panel will explore the role a newspaper and journalist play in setting the public agenda and being a change agent for an issue such as this.
Moderated By:
Ben Marrison
Editor, The Columbus Dispatch
Panel:
Jill Riepenhoff, Dispatch Investigative Reporter;
Jennifer Smith Richards, Dispatch Education Enterprise Reporter;
Doug Haddix, Dispatch Projects Editor
Photos of normal looking women and men stared from the pages of the paper beside stories that were impossible to believe. Similar pictures had probably appeared in school yearbooks. Coaches, teachers, advisors and administrators, who had been responsible for guiding and grading hundreds of our children, had failed their own personal tests of moral character.
How did these people and the system fail us and our children? How was this uncovered? What was the reporter's first lead? Why did The Dispatch pursue this story? At what risk? For what benefit? And, most importantly, with what result?
The initial series generated countless follow up stories and fostered positive and negative reactions from a wide range of interested parties. Parents, administrators, educators, the Ohio teachers unions and the Ohio Department of Education all weighed in. A dust storm of activity arose from capitol square and filtered into committee hearing rooms, legislative chambers and the Governor's office. It seems that everyone is clamoring for change.
Our panel will explore the role a newspaper and journalist play in setting the public agenda and being a change agent for an issue such as this.
Moderated By:
Ben Marrison
Editor, The Columbus Dispatch
Panel:
Jill Riepenhoff, Dispatch Investigative Reporter;
Jennifer Smith Richards, Dispatch Education Enterprise Reporter;
Doug Haddix, Dispatch Projects Editor
November 7, 2007