What do you get when you combine fifteen students, eight editors, two photographers, a teacher with 31 years of experience, and a lot of writing? Well, at Kent County High School, this recipe makes up the 2003-04 Journalism class. Maintaining two online sites, and distributing two issues of the Priam, this one-semester course has been filled with drafting, interviewing, and learning.

However, this semester is coming to a close and without another class of journalism students to take the reins next semester, the future of the Priam in 2004 is in jeopardy.

The Priam has existed at KCHS since 1971, and for a large portion of the past thirty-three years, the journalism program has been fostered by Mr. Herman Gay. Despite such efforts though, Gay was unable to convince the administration to extend journalism into a full year program. “I lost in the competition with the other electives,” says Gay. It seemed that there were too few students planning to take the class, and too many conflicts with the Career Pathways program. Nonetheless, Gay is determined to see the online portion of the journalism program continue through the spring and summer months.

The current online editors and photographers have agreed to continue their work outside of class. Nothing will be printed, but the “myhighschooljournalism” site will be maintained, along with an “ihigh” site with a few columns.

It will be during this “off season” that Mr. Gay will be given the opportunity to recruit new up and coming journalists. He does this by approaching his English students about the “joy of seeing one’s work published,” and by seeking out students with an interest in writing.

Gay, who began by instructing drama but was drawn to journalism, is confident in the success of the program outside of the boundaries of a 90-minute daily class, despite the failure he faced last year. “We crashed completely,” he says. The online provider, Highwired.com went bankrupt, and thus the opportunity of continuing journalism collapsed. However, Gay is encouraged by the success of the website over the summer in 2003, and thinks that things will work out during the remainder of the present school year.

Though the journalism program at Kent County High School may not be exactly what Mr. Herman Gay had hoped for, he is determined not to quit. He wants to stay ahead of other school systems, and keep his more advanced program growing. With the stories of five students having been published in the national online paper, Gay is far from discouraged. The Priam can be seen online, and will include editorials and “think pieces” written by KCHS students, before another print edition is distributed this fall.