SHAKER HEIGHTS, Ohio — On a recent afternoon in a second-floor classroom at Shaker Heights High School, The Shakerite is preparing to finish its next issue.
This is a high school newspaper unlike most others. There's a long legacy of quality journalism here. And over the past few years, they've covered and uncovered a slew of tough headlines in this well-known community.
These high school story-breakers are shaking things up, racking up prestigious awards and earning respect from the local media community - just check out this praise from our own 3News staff in 2018.
Where other districts might shy away from unflattering coverage, longtime Shakerite adviser Natalie Sekicky says here, it's all about doing what's right.
"It is a testament to the community, because even when they write a story about, for instance, something that the school district maybe isn't very happy about, they have the freedom to do that and nobody from the school district comes to the room and says 'stop it.' Not not one whiff of that." she said.
Current managing editor Ethan Bloch and Editor-in-Chief Mae Nagusky were reporters in the middle of that tough but sparkling coverage, and said it's a responsibility they didn't take lightly.
"It’s kind of overwhelming the amount of journalism that we had to do and it really hit me, you know... the importance of what I was doing." Bloch told us.
So what's their secret? Nagusky credits Sekicky for empowering the staff, "I think a lot of it has to do with our adviser and her treating us like humans and like people who have a voice."
In turn, the tenacity of these young scribes comes as no surprise to their faculty leader.
"The product itself has changed in it's physical nature, of course, but the kids are consistently every year fantastic and hardworking and they love journalism and they love this community and I think it shows in all of the work that they do," Sekicky told 3News.
Ethan and Mae graduate this spring, but of course, the work here will go on.
For Mae, whose father and grandfather were once editors at this paper, the hopes for her successors and The Shakerite, are special.
"A huge part of The Shakerite and what we're really aiming to help the school out with is equity. I think that that's huge and we we should never stop reporting on that and asking questions and writing those stories because if we stop, then that means we're not trying."