Student Journalists Fight ‘Fake News’ Accusation From City School Official

By Katie Honan, FLUSHING — A pair of high school journalists who have tirelessly covered the controversy around their interim principal are fighting back against a Department of Education official who recently accused their news reports as being “fake news.” In a letter addressed to Department of Education Chancellor Carmen Farina, Mayor Bill de Blasio and District 26 Superintendent Elaine Lindsey, the top editors of Townsend Harris High School’s paper, The Classic, rebutted DOE accusations that their coverage of the controversy over Rosemarie Jahoda since she was appointed the school’s interim principal last fall was “fake news.” “We agree that our reporting has been negative about Jahoda, but that doesn’t mean it’s fake,” said high school senior and The Classic’s Editor-in-Chief, Sumaita Hasan, 17, “We spend so much of our day in school and after school to ensure accuracy in all aspects of the story, but when it’s generalized as ‘fake news,’ it’s upsetting.” “To label our reporting as ‘fake’ is to disparage all the hard work we do,” Hasan and The Classic’s Managing Editor, Mehrose Ahmad, 17, wrote in their Mar. 5 letter to the mayor and schools chancellor. “If we were fabricating our material, we would be able to leave school far earlier than we do.”

Among their coverage, the paper has live-streamed a school sit-in against Jahoda, published a secret recording of Jahoda cursing while discussing a meeting with students and reported on accusations that she spends little time observing teachers in the classroom. The allegations that the paper was disseminating “fake news” came out during a meeting Friday between the DOE and representatives for State Assemblymembers David Weprin and Nily Rozic, an alum of the school. The elected officials had written a letter on Wednesday calling on Mayor Bill de Blasio and Schools Chancellor Carmen Farina to intervene in the school’s hiring process and oust Jahoda immediately. During Friday’s meeting, Frances DeSanctis, a representative for Superintendent Elaine Lindsey, said that while some people oppose Jahoda’s principalship, the controversy around Jahoda’s potential appointment was “the result of “‘fake news’ being widely circulated,” according to a Mar. 3 letter written by Weprin and Rozic obtained by DNAinfo New York. “While Ms. DeSanctis acknowledged community concern [about Jahoda], she did so while referencing the current environment in which “fake news” is being widely circulated. To insinuate that the community’s shared concerns could be equated to ‘fake news’ further demonstrates the lack of transparency and understanding that has guided the” school’s hiring process, Rozic and Weprin wrote. “Dismissing the concerns of the Townsend Harris community as ‘fake news’ goes against the call to action we as community representatives, we as public servants must foster in our current political climate,” they added. While DeSanctis didn’t single out the Classic, the assemblymembers cited the “students, teachers and parents” at the school who have been willing to speak out publicly about Jahoda’s actions, most of which were first reported by the school paper. dnainfo.com/new-york