After being apart for so long, this fall has been both daunting and exciting as students and faculty reunite on the KO campus. With all the complications brought by starting the school year during the continued threat of COVID-19, the KO News feels it’s important that we also keep in mind the events of the spring and summer: protests and social unrest have swept the country in response to the murder of numerous Black people at the hands of police. This movement is not just important to our country, but to our school and community as well. Responses from the KO Administration have included Equity and Inclusion Zoom calls, a new committee on the Board of Trustees, faculty initiatives on civil discourse, a promise in a July letter to hire a consultant for equity training by the end of the year, as well as an equity team created to ensure KO fulfills the promises its outlined thus far. We’ve seen racial injustice in our own community; hateful comments under an @wyvernnation Instagram post might be the first thing that comes to mind, but this incident is representative of countless micro and macro aggressions that have occurred in our community. We cannot accept bigotry and intolerance in our community, and it is the responsibility of each member of this community to work against it.
With all these events in mind, the KO News has rethought how we will serve the school community. Our new mission statement is as follows:
The KO News serves to unify the KO community in the form of relevant articles that highlight marginalized voices, inspire civil discussion, and inform the public. We recognize that journalism is constantly evolving, and we are committed to changing with it. As a student-run publication, directly serving the student body is our priority, as well as providing a forum for free speech on campus. We vow to provide reliable, accurate information for readers and to be a reflection and celebration of the community as a whole.
Being a student-run publication, we value free speech as a fundamental right that should always be used to speak up for injustice. We are a platform for public opinion at KO and pride ourselves on publishing work by students, for students. This is not limited to students on the staff. We want to hear the voices of all members of our community, whether that be in the form of opinion pieces, letters to the editor, or a DM on our @thekonews_ Instagram.
Unlike @wyvernnation or other KO affiliated platforms, who function mainly to serve alumni and families while promoting the school, our goal is to cater to current students: not prospective ones, not parents, not even alumni, although we appreciate their support and hope they also feel connected to the community through the KO News. We stand in support of honest dialogue and believe that student-run platforms need to be used with the purpose of encouraging conversations within the community. We have a responsibility as a community to encourage productive conversations with one another, by sharing experiences, informing each other, and make meaningful changes to our lives and those of others. Listening to the members of our community who have spoken up about racism, prejudice, and past injustices is long overdue, but doing so can make change in our community.
As we are now (until further notice) an exclusively online publication, emphasizing both the value and execution of true civil discourse is more important than ever. We encourage opinions from all sides and want to create a space for education, not hate and division. In today’s world, it has been normalized to forget civil discourse online. Despite this, the KO community should never have that type of online presence. The KO News is a space for honest opinions and respectful responses, and – as such – ignorance, misinformation, and the use of political beliefs to justify hate will not be tolerated. Especially when thinking about the upcoming election, we need to rise above the division of our country and refuse to further divide our own community among party lines. Rather, we need to unify to condemn systemic racism and all other forms of hate in order to make KO a more equitable environment. This means sincere questions over uninformed assumptions, genuine curiosity over unproductive bickering, and acknowledging our own privileges over denying the injustices in our own communities. If you would like to write a response to this editorial or express your own thoughts in a respectful and civil manner, we encourage you to do so. If you are interested in having your thoughts published on the web, have an idea you’d like us to pursue, or just want to share a response to recent articles or events, you can contact us through @thekonews_ on Instagram or email us at thekonews@kingswoodoxford.org. At an unprecedented time like this, both in our community and around the world, our voices remain imperative to unify our friends, teachers, and classmates, in the hope of creating a better world for everyone.
