Ashlyn Campbell
@A__Campbell
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perpetually tired news nerd || they/she || education reporter @Moco360Media || former @DNRnews @TheBreezeJMU || reach me at ashlyn.campbell @moco360 .media
Silver Spring, MD
Joined November 2020
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Finally in MoCo and starting my first day as the education reporter at
@MoCo360Media
today!
Feel free to send tips, story ideas and fun things to do here to ashlyn.campbell
@moco360
.media 🕺🏻
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I’m at Spotswood High School where students are walking out in protest against the recent Rockingham County School Board decisions to remove 57 books and implement the model policies.
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Alright I’m back on JMU’s Quad, where students are holding a Gaza solidarity occupation and teach in. They’ve moved into the shade and few more people have shown up. I counted a little under 30. Right now, people are making signs and having discussions with one another.
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some ✨personal news✨
I’ll be leaving the Daily News-Record at the end of June, and will be headed to Montgomery County, Maryland to report for
@MoCo360
!
I love Hburg and it’s been a wild ride covering eduction but I’m so excited to cover MoCo!!!
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A story I’ve been working on for several months is out today:
City Elders, a Christian dominionist group with the goal of gaining control over all aspects of modern life to advance a Biblical worldview, is putting its roots down in the Valley.
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in copying everyones tweets: some ~personal news~
I’m going to be joining
@DNRnews
on the education beat! I’m so so excited to continue reporting on education in a city I love.
JMU you haven’t gotten rid of me quite yet ;)
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After the meeting, a librarian shared with me that after everything that’s happened with the book ban, she’s looking for other jobs.
She said she doesn’t feel like the board wants to listen to librarians, and the claim that this isn’t an attack on librarians rings hollow.
Here’s my article on the work session (sorry about the delay, we had technical difficulties):
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Today I’m at Court Square Theater where students have organized a rally against recent Rockingham County School Board decisions — temporary book removals, implementing the model policies and opening meetings with prayer.
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BREAKING: The James Madison University Board of Visitors just unanimously voted to appoint Charlie King as the interim president of the University.
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Authors whose books are have been removed from RCPS libraries are now starting to weigh in on Rockingham County’s temporary book ban:
There’s been a lot of information coming out about Rockingham County’s temporary library book ban, so here’s an explainer that gives an overview of everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks:
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I’m so astounded by the reaction I’ve gotten to my City Elders article. I’ve spent months researching this story so much so it was making me a little crazy, so I’m glad people found it useful/informative/good. It’s easy to forget sometimes that people actually read my stories
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Chloe, a senior at Spotswood, said this protest isn’t just about banning books, its about students being heard.
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Not everyone knows or sees the work that student journalists put into their papers so, after the first two editions of
@TheBreezeJMU
this semester, I’m here to tell you, a quick thread:
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Wanna go on record to say that I’m the only one at
@TheBreezeJMU
that chose JMU to win over App State this weekend, the rest of the editors just aren’t as loyal as I am 😤
@TheBreezeSports
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I need a support group for recovering college newspaper editors who are now reporters and are realizing not everything is our job now.
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A Rockingham County school board member used BookLooks, a website tied to Moms for Liberty, to research books to remove and banned titles not in RCPS school libraries.
A look into the list of books that are being temporarily removed from county schools:
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I graduated yesterday :)
The last four years have been really hard and really fun and I wouldn’t have been able to do this without all my friends and family! Onto the next!
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Here’s my article on the walkout, and how some of the RCPS community is reacting to the board’s recent decisions:
I’m at Spotswood High School where students are walking out in protest against the recent Rockingham County School Board decisions to remove 57 books and implement the model policies.
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journalism self-care: making a folder dedicated to the nice emails you get on your coverage so you can scroll through it every once in a while
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RCPS high school students are now organizing against the book ban, and are planning a walk-out for the 24th in protest (thanks to
@CalebQuirogaVA
for tweeting about this first!)
A Rockingham County school board member used BookLooks, a website tied to Moms for Liberty, to research books to remove and banned titles not in RCPS school libraries.
A look into the list of books that are being temporarily removed from county schools:
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Honored to win first place in breaking news with
@kaseytrap
and third in breaking news with
@charmatherly
and
@byjakeconley
at the
@va_press_assoc
awards! Great way to close out my college career and my time at
@TheBreezeJMU
:)
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Jokes on y’all I physically can’t be woke because I have narcolepsy
Woke student challenges
@Liz_Wheeler
on transgender surgeries and gets hit with the facts
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Tonight I’m at the Rockingham County School Board meeting. The biggest thing on the agenda tonight: a vote on the final library policies. I’ll be livetweeting in this thread if you’d like to follow along!
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hey so uh genuine question, what are journalists supposed to do when the industry is being burned to the ground, bc watching phenomenal journalists get laid off like every other day is like… gut-wrenching
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I just talked with some of the students organizing against the board’s recent changes. Something one student said stuck out to me:
“School is school and you go there to learn, but the new school board is turning it into a political game.”
Article to come!
RCPS high school students are now organizing against the book ban, and are planning a walk-out for the 24th in protest (thanks to
@CalebQuirogaVA
for tweeting about this first!)
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Howdy everyone! Tonight I’m at a Rockingham County School Board meeting! Tonight they’ll be talking budget and give an update on library policy/book removals. Follow along in this thread:
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Sending thoughts and prayers to all the sports reporters covering JMU rn 🫡
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Hburg and Rockingham County are incredibly lucky to have so many phenomenal journalists through
@TheBreezeJMU
,
@TheHBurgCitizen
and WMRA. It makes me feel better that if I miss a particular angle on a story, someone else will be sure to cover it. Plus its healthy competition :)
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UPDATE: the Rockingham County school division is asking teachers to complete a form identifying students who go “by a name not associated with their legal name” by this Friday. The superintendent said the division wide move was aimed at implementing the new policies consistently.
UPDATE: The county board just voted (4-1, Lohr being the only no vote) to adopt the 2023 Model Policy example policies in full.
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For anyone keeping an eye out on the deep dive into the list of library books that is going to be temporarily removed from RCPS libraries, I’m working on it but it’ll be coming out later on Thursday. It’s taking me longer than I thought to double check everything.
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Hello again everyone! This morning I’m at Spotswood High School, where the Rockingham County School Board is holding a work session to hear from librarians on policies for library materials. Follow along here:
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BREAKING: Harrisonburg High School is currently on lockdown, according to a Harrisonburg police officer at the school. He said he couldn’t give me more information other than there are officers in and outside the school and the kids are safe.
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Jacob, another organizer of the walkout, addressed Jackie Lohr, the only board member who voted against these decisions, said she’s representing their voices and hopes she holds strong.
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Being a reporter that covers JMU but knows little to nothing about sports has made the past two weeks a lot of fun
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There’s been a lot of information coming out about Rockingham County’s temporary library book ban, so here’s an explainer that gives an overview of everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks:
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Here’s the full list that I got, it’s 55 books. The titles are cut off but here they all are. I tried to ask Hollie Cave questions but she told me she wouldn’t be answering any questions, continuing a theme of hers since before the election.
BREAKING: Rockingham County School Board just voted to "temporarily remove" books from RCPS libraries as they establish a process to review books in libraries. The list includes books like All Boys Aren't Blue and Beloved, but I'll get the full list at the end of the meeting.
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also on a ~ personal note ~
Very excited to announce that I will be helping to run
@TheBreezeJMU
as a managing editor next year! I’ll be in charge of long-form and investigative content and I can’t wait to get started with
@charmatherly
and
@SavannahReger17
!!!
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In a closed-door decision without a vote, the Rockingham County School Board hired new legal counsel on Monday, ending a decades-long relationship with its previous counsel.
My latest story:
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Here are the demands written on a sign, as well as some of the other posters and signs around their space:
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For those of you who’ve read my story on City Elders and dominionism in the Valley, there are some familiar faces in the second pic, including three members of local chapters of City Elders that I can see/recognize.
Yesterday at the Capitol was the Virginia March for Life. Thousands from around the Commonwealth prayed and marched to support the sanctity of life in Virginia.
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Howdy everyone! Tonight I’m at the Rockingham County School Board meeting. On the agenda tonight: budget approval, lab schools and supplementary policies update. Plus, I imagine they’ll also be talking about the whole lawyer debacle as well. Follow along in this thread:
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Walking outside of Festival, there’s still a huge number of people protesting on East Campus.
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Howdy everyone, I’m here at the first work session for library book policy for Rockingham County Public Schools. It’s about 10 minutes until it starts and the room is almost full of people already. Follow along in this thread for updates:
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NOW: JMU is holding a vigil in support of the UVa community. There are hundreds of people in attendance.
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How’d the Rockingham County School Board decide which books to temporarily remove?
By using, at least in part, a Moms for Liberty tied site to research books parents objected to when talking to board members.
My latest update on the county’s book ban:
Okay wanna run a quick correction, after looking at the list that was posted online, its actually 57* books. The printed copy I received cut off two titles: “Heartstopper”and “Nick and Charlie.”
This list conveniently doesn’t include the notes or schools from the other list.
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On days that I’m having a particularly hard time, I remind myself that middle/high school me would think I’m so cool right now. So at least there’s that.
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Students rallied against recent board decisions with support from parents, teachers and even those outside of Rockingham County — including two Spotsylvania community members with plenty of experience with book bans.
Read about the rally in my story:
Today I’m at Court Square Theater where students have organized a rally against recent Rockingham County School Board decisions — temporary book removals, implementing the model policies and opening meetings with prayer.
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Alright, so after Matt Cross went on a bit of a tirade about me and Jackie Lohr during board questions and comments, they went into closed session! So fun! Tonight I’m just gonna write my article then go to bed 🥴
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Just wanna note that they are entirely peaceful, the entire time I was there they were sitting on the Quad making signs, sharing educational resources and having discussions about what’s going on.
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Well in other news.... I’m very excited to announce that I’ll have the honor of serving as editor in the News section for
@TheBreezeJMU
next year!! I can’t wait to get started and see where next year takes us!!
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Rockingham County students will be releasing an open letter to the school board today at 3:00 p.m., according to the Instagram they’ve been organizing with. I’ll post the letter once they publish it!!
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Honored to have won 4th place in diversity story of the year with the
@acpress
for Divided: Fox News and the pressures at JMU's top with my lovely former coeditor
@kamrkoch
and EIC
@byjakeconley
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Seeing the new staff for
@TheBreezeJMU
makes me feel so old but I’m so proud and so so excited for the next staff to provide fantastic journalism for our community!
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On the steps of Wilson hall, UVA is spelled out with tea lights.
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This email was sent out to all Rockingham County Public School employees this afternoon by the head of RCPS human resources:
After the meeting, a librarian shared with me that after everything that’s happened with the book ban, she’s looking for other jobs.
She said she doesn’t feel like the board wants to listen to librarians, and the claim that this isn’t an attack on librarians rings hollow.
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Alright as this Rockingham County school board meeting is kicking off, I’m going to be live tweeting for the results of the investigation into an elementary school field taken to the Forbes Center, follow the updates in this thread:
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Howdy everyone! Tonight I’m at the Rockingham County School Board meeting. On the agenda tonight: the final draft for library policies. I’ll be live tweeting in this thread:
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@TheBreezeJMU
staff, from this year and last, are some of my favorite people in the world. We’ve done some kickass reporting and I couldn’t be prouder of all the indispensable reporting we’ve done for the JMU community :)
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The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent the Rockingham County School Board a letter yesterday, arguing invocations at school board meetings are unconstitutional.
Matt Cross started with an invocation, stating that he believed most community members would agree that they "need God's help" at this moment. Prior to the meeting, a McGaheysville pastor was listed as the one giving the invocation, although that's no longer on the agenda.
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My little known journalism secret is that I ask follow-ups/double check things both because I want to be as accurate as possible AND because I’m just a little dumb
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Back out on the Quad as the sun is setting, lots more people here. Again, I’m bad at estimating numbers but definitely over 50 people. So far the police have been watching inside buildings, but there are a few standing outside Alumnae Hall right now.
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Tonight I’m covering the Liz Wheeler talk at JMU in the Festival Highlands Room and I’ll be livetweeting the entire time! Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the event starts at 6 p.m. Follow along here:
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UPDATE: Today, librarians in Rockingham County were told to "hold off adding additional books to the library" until the board creates a new policy. The asst. superintendent who emailed school principals with the info said the exec admin made the decision, not the school board.
There’s been a lot of information coming out about Rockingham County’s temporary library book ban, so here’s an explainer that gives an overview of everything that’s happened over the last couple of weeks:
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Here’s the full article on tonight’s meeting:
BREAKING: Rockingham County School Board just voted to "temporarily remove" books from RCPS libraries as they establish a process to review books in libraries. The list includes books like All Boys Aren't Blue and Beloved, but I'll get the full list at the end of the meeting.
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Well.. what can I say
Wanna go on record to say that I’m the only one at
@TheBreezeJMU
that chose JMU to win over App State this weekend, the rest of the editors just aren’t as loyal as I am 😤
@TheBreezeSports
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Hi everyone! Tonight I’m at a Rockingham County School Board meeting! On the agenda tonight — student conduct, drug prevention and budget planning! Follow along for updates:
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BREAKING: Rockingham County School Board just voted to "temporarily remove" books from RCPS libraries as they establish a process to review books in libraries. The list includes books like All Boys Aren't Blue and Beloved, but I'll get the full list at the end of the meeting.
Tonight is a full house for the first regular Rockingham County School Board meeting of the year. Two very controversial topics on the agenda tonight: library books and the model policies. I’ll be live tweeting updates in this thread:
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Here’s what the Quad looks like this morning. There’s a small group of students working on some posters right now and there’s some blankets and chairs set up:
Around 13 people sit on
#JMU
’s quad today as a part of YDSA’s Gaza Solidarity Occupation & Teach-In. Members will engage in this peaceful demonstration “until demands are met.” Read the demands below.
(via
@ydsajmu
on Instagram)
#Gaza
#Palestine
#Israel
#University
#Campus
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My first full day on the job included running to the new Rocktown High for a tour of the building that’s still under construction. The high school is well on its way to open up for students in fall 2024.
From a field off of I-81 to steel beams, the Rocktown High School building is starting to embody the school many Harrisonburg students will eventually call home.
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As they start with student awards, I’ll talk about something that happened earlier today. RCSB Chair Matt Cross posted this on his personal FB page. He’s since deleted it, and commented this in response to a community member:
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The Harrisonburg Citizen and
@BeeBink
put out a great follow up today on the closed door decision — the county’s new lawyer is suing HCPS, possibly creating a conflict of interest since they share responsibility of the technical center:
In a closed-door decision without a vote, the Rockingham County School Board hired new legal counsel on Monday, ending a decades-long relationship with its previous counsel.
My latest story:
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SMAD professors 🤝 supporting JMU student journalists
School of Media Arts & Design faculty members signed a letter Wednesday denouncing yesterday's closed SGA meeting.
The letter, addressed to VP for Student Affairs Tim Miller, SGA advisers Dirron Allen and Rebeca Barge, and SGA President Nate Hazen, is in its entirety below.
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Howdy everyone! Tonight I’m at the Rockingham County School Board meeting, where they’ll be introducing their draft policy on library material challenges and selection. I’ll be posting updates on the meeting in this thread:
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Wish I could’ve tweeted from GameDay but service was non existent. Either way, I don’t know how students were still standing after all of that. One student said she had a group of friends that started camping out WEDNESDAY night. Dedication is off the charts.
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Its (more than) full-time journalism work + full-time school work + not being taken seriously/talked down to by… a whole number of people. So be kind to your local student journalists
Student journalists deserve your respect even when they don't make national news. I was 19 years old doing a job that is still difficult for me at 24, and juggling school on top of it. The work they do is important whether it's breaking big news or covering a meeting.
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My first story at
@MoCo360Media
is out:
Clarksburg middle school PTSA alleges $12,000 embezzled by former member
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U.S. News using my story AP pulled but not including my byline 🥲
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My favorite thing is when people say “the media” when they’re really just talking about me, who 9 times out of 10 can be found staring into nothingness trying to figure out how I’m gonna write something
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Thanks for all the well wishes y’all 🥹 I will miss Hburg but I’m excited for my new chapter. Plus I’ll have to come back because my little brother will be a duke in the fall!!
some ✨personal news✨
I’ll be leaving the Daily News-Record at the end of June, and will be headed to Montgomery County, Maryland to report for
@MoCo360
!
I love Hburg and it’s been a wild ride covering eduction but I’m so excited to cover MoCo!!!
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Let’s bring Zoom classes back for rainy days. I’m so tired of walking to class in the cold and the rain when we could all be drinking tea and getting comfy.
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Truly I know I probably missed so much that I could write for hours about: the fact that The Invisible Boy is a kids book, the backlash (and support) in the FOIA’d emails, etc. but my stories are always so long soo, tldr: this is definitely not my last article on this.
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Here’s the link to the open letter!
Rockingham County students will be releasing an open letter to the school board today at 3:00 p.m., according to the Instagram they’ve been organizing with. I’ll post the letter once they publish it!!
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I want everyone who thinks (esp local) journalism is some big conspiracy thats really just me sitting behind a computer with probably like a million of the dumbest questions running through my mind
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I can’t read these all the goodbye columns rn bc I’ll cry but I’m so proud of this year’s leadership and all of the phenomenonal journalism they put out and I can’t wait to see what they do next
Yesterday was my last newspaper production day as
@TheBreezeJMU
's editor-in-chief. Some parting words below in my "goodbye column" and in a letter to readers, advisers and the staff from me,
@michaelrusso76
and
@avesgoodstine
:
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Tonight is the special MTC board meeting where the RCPS and HCPS boards will discuss concerns over the county’s new attorney, who’s suing HCPS.
RCSB Chair Matt Cross said the meeting was a political stunt and was deciding if they would go. So the meeting should be interesting!
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Being a people pleasing journalist with anxiety sure is a WILD ride 😵💫
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A quote my roommate, which I think is particularly timely:
“Ashlyn doesn’t have a public enemy, she is the public enemy”
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She said they object to how some policies have been implemented and how some board members conduct themselves. She said some board members are manufacturing a crisis to push their political agenda. Her comments are receiving cheering and claps from the crowd.
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If anyones curious, I did look up all 57 books in all of Rockingham County’s 23 schools. Which I had to do individually. Which took forever lol.
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For anyone following along, two county school board candidates that attended City Elders meetings (including Hollie Cave, who said she fully supports their work), won Tuesday night’s election.
A story I’ve been working on for several months is out today:
City Elders, a Christian dominionist group with the goal of gaining control over all aspects of modern life to advance a Biblical worldview, is putting its roots down in the Valley.
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Very excited to be at the 2023
@va_press_assoc
conference, watching lunch keynote speaker Martin Kaiser talk about accountability journalism.
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Now that kids are walking back and forth from class, there are some kids who are trying to argue or yell out. One kid yelled out saying their message was stupid, and an organizer seems to be having a discussion with him now.
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If anyone’s wondering what I listen to while I (metaphorically) bang my head on my desk because I can’t figure out how to start a story here ya go
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The James Madison University Faculty Senate passed a resolution today asking for more faculty representation on the JMU Presidential Search Committee:
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On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to tag along with
@BeauDickenson
and RCPS students on their trip to the
@MotonMuseum
in Farmville, where students explored and presented the local stories that led to the end of school segregation in America:
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In a surprising turn of events, today was EVEN WORSE than yesterday! Tune in to see just how weird my week will get!
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Another author weighing in via a letter to the
@TheBreezeJMU
Authors whose books are have been removed from RCPS libraries are now starting to weigh in on Rockingham County’s temporary book ban:
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The Rockingham County School Board voted to return its first banned book to library shelves Monday night, bringing “The Invisible Boy” by Trudy Ludwig back to Rockingham County Public Schools.
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