We snap photos at school dances, engage in interviews about your personal life and construct our yearbook, Storm, from the year’s highlights. It’s the beauty of high school journalism.

As journalists, our mission is to seek truth and report it. Yes, it is the common knowledge that we are meant to remain neutral and balanced when reporting matters. A journalist should be honest and never alter the content to be passed on to the people.

However, the fact that we assume such a role does not mean that only certain matters are to be written about.

From the articles that push us to reflect on our privilege to those that inform the community of notable events such as potential schedule changes and the Sage Center, Publications Staff has continuously worked to promote conversation and awareness at Sage Hill.
Protected by the concepts of Education Code 48907 as well as Leonard Law, we uphold our right to print and share our beliefs as well as information that is honest and reliable with our community.

By doing so, we aim to educate our peers and faculty about school events and adjustments affecting them; We believe our community worthy of nothing less.

It is not our job to slant the newspaper’s content for the public’s convenience. A journalist’s job is to pass on the news in the best way possible, regardless of the effect on the people of interest.

As Publications Staff, we also recognize that it is important to encourage the discussion of issues within and outside of school so as to push others and ourselves to form opinions about them.

The Sage Hill mission statement reads: “We inspire in our students a love of knowledge and the ability to use that knowledge creatively, compassionately and courageously throughout their lives.”

As members of Publications Staff, we strive to do just this.

By questioning Sapphire’s pricing, tackling the problems associated with gender roles and speaking out on gun violence we struggle to bring our community to a place of greater understanding and acceptance.

And with courage, we put our ideas to paper in The Bolt and lightningboltoline.com.

In return, we ask for our voice and perspective to be respected. We reserve the right to write freely on any matter, as long as it respects other’s rights. We hope those in our community will use our publications as a way to remain updated with the happenings of our community and to use that knowledge to advocate and push for the greater good of our school.

To prove a journalist’s honesty in reporting matters of the world is genuine; we are willing to be held accountable.