“Wait, we do?”

Wait, County has a school newspaper? 

Contrary to many students’ beliefs, Loudoun County does in fact have a school newspaper. The County Chronicle has been operating since 1954 when Loudoun County High School was first established. It started under its original name of The Loudoun Raider, named after the original mascot of the school, and has survived numerous challenges, the pandemic being the latest. 

Years ago, newspaper students would deliver the paper directly to students during class. When disrupting class became frowned upon by administration, the newspaper staff placed newspapers in hotspots around the school. For over fifty years, the newspaper ran in print, but it could not adapt to the vast challenges that were presented when COVID struck. To reach the students at home the newspaper was put online in blog and PDF format, but with screen fatigue, it seems that the newspaper was almost forgotten. 

With the newspaper now online, students seem to find it more difficult to access. “You have to go on too many tabs and it’s so much work,” said freshmen Taylor Fedor. It seems a main issue is that many students don’t find it enjoyable or don’t have enough time to explore it. “It’s just something that isn’t appealing anymore, and I only read it during quarantine,” said sophomore Farhat Afshari. 

Michaela Scott, senior newspaper editor also expressed that the newspaper prior to COVID was a “More organized system, because everything was thrown up in the air once the pandemic happened.” 

Scott also conveyed that the newspaper was more realistic to an actual press newspaper preceding COVID. “We would go to every class and would be like “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” and it was such a “newspapery” thing,” Scott said. 

It is clear that the school newspaper needs change, with freshmen Rudy Lovo who “doesn’t like reading it.” 

The majority consensus of the student population agreed that the best way to make the newspaper more visible is to print a physical paper, although the reasons for favoring this vary. The average answer can be summed up by junior Connor Malone, saying, “People are lazy and they are forced to do it because it’s right in front of them.” However some students like Pearson say that they are simply, “sick of looking at the screen.”

The school was even more divided on how these paper copies should be communicated, while Malone says spreading awareness through the announcements would be enough. Other students suggested more drastic measures. Placing advertisements in the bathroom was a surprisingly popular prospect. “I would love to hear about the school newspaper while I pee,” said senior Angeles Vasquez.

Kennedy Cole elaborated even further on the idea saying that putting the commercial on the back of a bathroom stall with big lettering would be most efficient. Sophomore William Zhang disagreed, saying, “I don’t want to be forced to look at some newspaper article, I don’t want to see that in the bathroom.” 

Students like junior Brian Revera worry about what he has seen already, noting that he has “seen people take them (other advertisements) down.”

Even though many challenges seem to face our newspaper there are many ways to share the widespread knowledge of the schools newspaper, whether it be through the announcements, bathroom advertisements, paper copies, or even as Cole suggested by passing them out at lunch. Hopefully with our April edition back in print, when Loudoun County High School students are asked about if they knew we had a newspaper say, they will be able to say more than “Wait, we do?”