CCSD student journalists win national recognition

By Paul Takahashi

Wednesday, April 16, 2014 | 12:26 p.m.

Students from two Clark County high schools have been nationally recognized for their work on campus newspapers and yearbooks.

Journalism students at Southwest Career and Technical Academy and Legacy High School were honored last weekend at the Journalism Education Association/National Scholastic Press Association conference in San Diego.

The “Southwest Shadow,” the student newspaper at Southwest CTA, received several awards at the conference.

The newspaper’s website placed first among “small schools” for the Scholastic Press Association’s “Best of Show” awards and was one of 14 student news websites that won the 2014 Online Pacemaker award. More than 130 student newspapers participated in the competition nationally.

The five-member staff of the “Southwest Shadow” also won five awards from the Journalism Education Association’s writing contest. Staff members last month also received a “Silver Crown” award for high school digital publications from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Legacy High School’s “Longhorns” yearbook placed ninth among high school yearbooks with 224 pages or fewer participating in the competition. The last time a Nevada high school newspaper or yearbook was honored with a Pacemaker was in 2000.

“It’s great that students’ work is being recognized, and I’m so proud of them,” said Matt LaPorte, journalism adviser at Southwest CTA. “I hope this is the start of a great resurgence for scholastic journalism in Nevada.”