Student journalists from all over Wake County went to a school board meeting to speak against the removal of SNO, and the board listened. Now, SNO is staying for another year instead of ending after June 30, 2025. This is exciting news for the “Roaring Bengals” along with other Wake County high school newspaper programs.
SNO stands for Student Newspaper Online, and school newspapers around the country make news sites with it. The Wake County School Board wanted to ban the website because of security risks without giving students a proper replacement.
Junior Brynn Ellis enjoyed seeing her articles on the paper. She remembered working hard on the drafts, and she could compare that work to the finished project. Additionally, she could send her articles to friends and family.
Ellis said, “Our copy editor, Lena Vecchione, was talking about how she’s going to a journalism school, and in order for her to get in and have one of the big positions [she wanted, she needed] all the articles uploaded on there. To have those preserved is kind of important.”
Student journalists use SNO to show colleges their portfolio of published work. It’s easier to click on the link of a website and read through it than a Google doc, which doesn’t look as professional.
Student journalists showed proof that people wanted SNO to stay by creating a petition for people to virtually sign. That petition got 1,077 signatures in two weeks. It shows how many people care about SNO.
SNO makes the newspaper easier. Student journalists already do a lot of work gathering information, getting interviews and writing up articles. With SNO, it makes publishing students’ hard work easy, while at the same time making it look professional.
