Indiana School Asks Channel One News To Leave

January 4, 2003
September 2001 Issue, The Reveille, Brownsburg High School, Brownsburg, Indiana

Passing Extended; Loss of Channel 1

At the start of the school year many students and teachers’ wishes were granted. For many years students had been forced to watch Channel One, a news show based on world news, high schools, and students. This year the administration decided to remove Channel One and give students longer passing periods.

Channel One was shown every day for 12 minutes. To many students that might not seem like a long time, but when the stories covered things that the students knew nothing about and had nothing to do with Indiana, many felt Channel One was a very boring 12 minutes. Brownsburg students have differing opinions about Channel One being taken away. Some weren’t happy to have it removed.

"Channel One was my only source of world news. I don’t think they should have taken it away." said junior, Kira Carroll. Others disagree. "I like it that they took away Channel One and gave us longer passing periods because Channel One was a waste of our time and now we don’t have to rush to get to our classes," said sophomore, Christine McKinney.

According to Principal Hodgkin, the administration decided to take away Channel One based on two surveys. One to the students and the other to the teachers. Both surveys came back with negative responses. There was a small margin of students and teachers that paid attention to it and thought it was serving its purpose, but the majority did not think Channel One served its purpose.

"Times have changed, (Channel One) had a nice purpose and good news, but now there are many 24-hour news channels that students and teachers can turn on at anytime. There are so many more sources now," said Principal Dr. Hodgkin.

When the new gym opens later in the school year some students will have to go from one end of the school to the other. The administration felt they needed to give the students more time for passing periods. They couldn’t change the time school started or ended because the busses have to get to the elementary schools. They had to get the time from somewhere and cutting down classes wasn’t an option, however, removing Channel One was. It wasn’t having positive feedback, and it was 12 minutes of time that could easily be taken away. The administration decided to keep announcements and have a few news clips from CNN. This move gave them the time they needed to make passing periods one minute longer changing from five to six minutes.

Some students feel that six minutes is too long, but many other students like having more time for talking to friends, stopping at their lockers, going to the restrooms, and not having to rush to their classes. Many teachers also like the longer passing periods and say they have affected the amount of tardies too. "(There have been) virtually none. I think one of the best changes in the schedule was extending the passing periods to six minutes," said English teacher, Mrs. Martha Clancy. The lunches were also lengthened from 30 to 34 minutes. Many students like having the extra few minutes because of the amount of time they can spend in the lunch lines.

(Thanks to Ken McNatt for bringing this article to our atttention. Ken is a high school student that has worked hard to make the nation aware of Channel One’s exploitation of students. Bravo to these Indiana students who realized that this New York company was robbing them of their lunch time, passing time and academic time. Many more schools are quietly doing what Brownsburg has done. Also a bravo to the teachers and Dr. Hodgkin.)