About

The Roar is an award-winning student-run website produced at Coronado High School in Henderson, NV.

It first began online production in the fall of 2013 under the direction of Mrs. Thompson, and the original material published on the site includes breaking news, current sports briefs and scores, lifestyles, trends and news features, both serious and humorous opinion, editorials, and reviews as well as student photography and artwork.  

The staff is comprised of 12 student journalists ranging from freshman to senior. To become part of The Roar staff, students must be recommended by either their eighth grade journalism teacher, Ms. Bloom following their performance in Journalism Foundations, or a tenth or eleventh grade honors or AP English teacher. Students must demonstrate strong skills in grammar, content and structure.

The Roar won First Place for Best News Website in 2014 and 2016 at the Las Vegas Review Journal High School Journalism Awards and has consistently placed in the top three since 2013. The website earned a gold certificate rating from the Columbia Scholastic Press Association in 2016 and Best of Nevada Online Website from SNSJ in 2017 and 2018. Some of the  writers have received certificates for outstanding writing, design, and photography.

The Roar’s mission statement: We, The Roar staff, will inform and represent our community with timely, trustworthy and original content.

Follow us on social media:

Twitter https://twitter.com/coronadoroar (You can also find the most recent Twitter and Instagram feed on the homepage).

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coronadocougarsnv/

Like us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/The-Coronado-Roar-165174570162667/?fref=ts

We would love to hear your feedback and story ideas. Contact us at coronadojournalism@gmail.com.

Form for requesting correction of information or the removal of information from the website.

As preservers of democracy, The Roar shall protect, encourage and enhance free speech and the exchange of ideas as a means of protecting our American way of life.

Because school officials do not engage in prior review, and the content of The Roar is determined by and reflects only the views of the student staff and not school officials or the school itself, its student editorial board and responsible student staff members assume complete legal and financial liability for the content of the publication.

Student journalists may use electronic media to report news and information, to communicate with other students and individuals, to ask questions of and consult with experts and to gather material to meet their news gathering and research needs.

The Roar and its staff are protected by and bound to the principles of the First Amendment and other protections and limitations afforded by the Constitution and the various laws and court decisions implementing those principles.

The Roar will not publish any material determined by student editors or the student editorial board to be unprotected, that is, material that is libelous, obscene, materially disruptive of the school process, an unwarranted invasion of privacy, a violation of copyright or a promotion of products or services unlawful (illegal) as to minors as defined by state or federal law.

Definitions and examples for the above instances of unprotected speech can be found in Law of the Student Press published by the Student Press Law Center.

The editorial board, which consists of the staff’s student editors, will determine the content, including all unsigned editorials. The views stated in editorials represent that of a majority of the editorial board. Signed reviews represent only the opinion of the author.

The Roar editorial board reserves the right to withhold a comment if it contains unprotected speech or grammatical errors that could hamper its meaning.

Staff members will strive to correct errors prior to publication; however, if the editorial board determines a significant error is printed, the editorial board will determine the manner and timeliness of a correction.

The staff of The Roar will strive to report all issues in a legal, objective, accurate and ethical manner, according to the Canons of Professional Journalism developed by the Society for Professional Journalists. The Canons of Professional Journalism include a code of ethics concerning accuracy, responsibility, integrity, conflict of interest, impartiality, fair play, freedom of the press, independence, sensationalism, personal privacy, obstruction of justice, credibility and advertising.

The adviser will not act as a censor or determine the content of the paper. The adviser will offer advice and instruction, following the Code of Ethics for Advisers established by the Journalism Education Association as well as the Canons of Professional Journalism. School officials shall not fire or otherwise discipline advisers for content in student media that is determined and published by the student staff.

The student editor and staff who want appropriate outside legal advice regarding proposed content – should seek attorneys knowledgeable in media law such as those of the Student Press Law Center. Final content decisions and responsibility shall remain with the student editorial board.

The Roar will not avoid publishing a story solely on the basis of possible dissent or controversy.

Electronic manipulations changing the essential truth of the photo or illustration will be clearly labeled if used.

The duly appointed editor or co-editors shall interpret and enforce this editorial policy.

All articles, graphics, photos, art, columns, pages, reviews, and other material creatively conceived–with exception of staff editorials, mug shots and cut-outs will be bylined with the producer’s name.

All bylined writers will be held accountable for their work.

When more than one person has contributed creatively to a piece of work, any person who has contributed to the work must be bylined as a producer.

The staff of The Roar will strive to report all issues in a legal, objective, accurate and ethical manner, according to the Canons of Professional Journalism developed by the Society for Professional Journalists.

The Canons of Professional Journalism include a code of ethics concerning accuracy, responsibility, integrity, conflict of interest, impartiality, fair play, freedom of the press, independence, sensationalism, personal privacy, obstruction of justice, credibility and advertising.

We encourage readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regards to both the readers and writers of the publication.

Comments will be pre-moderated, and may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy.

Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article they are about. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is not permitted.

A comment will be deleted if:

  • The comment attacks a named or identified person or group unreasonably;
  • The comment makes readers unreasonably uncomfortable on the basis of one’s race, gender, religion, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation or otherwise.
  • The comment attacks personally any school employee.
  • The comment contains excessive obscenities or sexual explicitness.

Content Removal Policy

In journalistic writing, readers may sometimes consider an article to contain content that is offensive or inappropriate. The reader may then request that the article be removed from the online publication; however, as student journalists, we have the right to protect the content of what we write and publish online.

Because of the New Voices Law which Gov. Brian Sandoval signed into law for the state of Nevada on June 2, 2017, publications written and produced by students and all decisions related to content made by students are now protected by this law.

A reader who requests a story be removed from the website must have justification for such a request. This includes school administration, staff or students who disagree with the opinion of the writer. Simply disagreeing with content does not justify the removal of a piece of writing.

Criteria that may provide justification for removal  is as follows:

  • Does the story contain factually false statements?
  • Does the story contain mistakes in writing skills (grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc.) that show its unreadiness for posting?
  • Does the story contain material that is too graphic or vulgar for an educational environment?

If the story or article meets any of the criteria, then the request for removal may be sent.

The process to make a decision will be:

  1. Verifying the identity of the reader who submitted the request.
  2. If the reason is considered to be valid, the staff writers, editors and adviser will hold a meeting and decide if the article should remain online or be pulled from the website.
  3. The Student Press Law Center will be contacted if the decision cannot be made.

The process of the editorial board in reviewing the request is as follows:

  1. Validity of the reason will be assessed. It must meet one or more of the requirements mentioned above.
  2. Article or story of concern will be reevaluated by each member of the editorial board. To their best reasoning, they will determine if the request for its removal should be approved by checking for false statements, writing errors and vulgar material.
  3. Members of the editorial board will reconvene and vote on the approval or disapproval of the request.

If the majority of the editorial board decides that the article in question meets the criteria for removal, then the story will be pulled from the website as soon as possible.

If the majority decides that the article does not meet the criteria for removal, the story will remain on the website. A detailed explanation for the request’s denial will be created and agreed upon by the editorial board. This will then be communicated to the sender of the request as soon as possible.

To request a change or removal of content, please email facts that meet the above outlined criteria to:  coronadojournalism@gmail.com

Covering death

Should a student or staff member die at any time during the current coverage period, The staff of The Roar will treat the death in a tasteful, respectful manner. Students may choose to cover the death as a news story and/or possible feature in the next issue of The Roar depending on the situation, including cause of death and timing. It is the aim of the staff to handle any such situation in a fair and sensitive manner.

Social Media News Gathering Ethics Code

The standards and practices for social media newsgathering and the use of social media are as follows:

  1. Traditional ethics rules still apply online
  2. Assume everything published online will become public
  3. Use social media to engage readers, but do so professionally
  4. Break news on the website, not on Twitter, Instagram or Snapchat
  5. Beware of perceptions and misconceptions
  6. Independently authenticate anything found on a social networking site
  7. Journalists will always identify themselves
  8. Social networks are tools not toys
  9. Journalists will be transparent and admit when they’re wrong online
  10. Journalists will keep internal deliberations confidential