Interview with Kansas High School Journalist Connor Balthazor

On 4th April, Amy Robertson, the newly appointed head principal of Pittsburg High School in Pittsburg, Kansas, resigned. The reason why, she claimed it was in the best interest of the district to resign her position. What she didn’t mention was the story published about her in Booster Redux, the school newspaper. Six students, Connor Balthazor, Patrick Sullivan, Gina Mathew, Kali Poenitske, Maddie Baden and Trina Paul spent weeks researching their new principal’s credentials, ultimately to find that Corllins University, the school where she claimed she got her Master’s degree and Ph.D from, is a degree mill. A degree or diploma mill is an institution or organisation that grants large numbers of educational degrees based on inadequate or inferior education and assessment of the recipients.

You’ve likely heard this story before, and the media attention the students’ work gained. I had the pleasure of asking one of the students, Connor Balthazor, for an interview where I asked more in-depth questions about their experience.

Firstly, when I asked if there was anything initially suspicious or ‘off’ about Robertson, Connor said that her hiring “was not publically announced for nearly a month.”

I was taken aback to hear that the students worked on their research for several weeks, Connor said that they “wanted to be as thorough as possible.”

“We could have simply looked up Corllins University, discovered it was a degree mill, and left it at that. But we knew that we would need much more evidence as well as giving her a chance to explain her side to maintain journalistic integrity” he said.

I was interested to find out more about the attitude of the school officials whilst the story was being put together. Connor said the students met with the school superintendent three times to show him their findings, yet “he did not act on what we told him.” He said that they were lucky that in Kansas, school administrators are not allowed to censor student publications, so they could not be stopped in unmasking the truth.

When asked about the reaction of their fellow students and teachers to the story, Connor said the reaction was mixed – “Students in most cases were positive. With teachers, some were upset because they thought we had made the district look bad, while there were others who were happy we had uncovered the truth.”

One of, if not the biggest honour the students gained from their story, was being invited by The Huffington Post to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner in Washington DC. All expenses paid, the students flew on April 28th, attended the dinner among the nation’s most esteemed journalists and reporters on Saturday the 29th, and flew home on Sunday, April 30th.

“Getting invited to the dinner was a huge surprise to me. I had enjoyed the reaction to the story but I thought that our 15 minutes were up by that point. When I heard about us being invited, I was caught completely off guard. The dinner was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. Getting to speak with some great reporters and journalists was nothing short of an honor for myself and the rest of the group.”

Finally, I asked Connor how he felt about the current climate of the journalism and media world. I believe that it’s an interesting time to be a journalist, albeit challenging, in this world of ‘fake news’ and the President’s distrust of mainstream media. Connor finds the negative opinions of journalism disappointing. He pointed out the interesting evolution of the public’s attitude towards journalists – “In the past, no matter your political leanings, people generally agreed journalists are integral to keeping politicians in check. Nowadays, many people question journalism when it goes against what they believe.” He also emphasised the point that ethics are incredibly important now for publications to maintain their credibility.

His advice to fellow high school journalists inspired by their story is “if they are looking to chase a story down, do not be intimidated by people that tell you to look the other way. If there’s a story there, write it, because the facts can’t let you down.”