Hi everyone! This year I am editor-in-chief of my school’s newspaper, and we have a record-breaking 33 kids on staff (last year, we had 17). If I’m being honest, a lot of the new kids were just placed in here randomly by their counselors and have no skill or interest in journalism. One in particular is creating multiple problems.
One of these kids, a sophomore…Let’s call him M. M, first of all, lacks the English skills that should be and have always been required for newspaper. I was working with him on a lead and he spelled “said” wrong and used “she was died” as grammar in his sentence. (He is from another country FYI).
His English skills aside, he has been rude to me multiple times. He doesn’t respect my authority and constantly talks back. I try to act civil as I’m editor and should be the bigger person. However, his behavior has come to him constantly referring to another girl as “Jew.” M also was punching this one kid (in the arm) throughout the period today.
I don’t think he should be on our newspaper staff. He’s a bully, he’s not on a high enough English level and he makes many people around him uncomfortable.
How should I go about ‘reporting’ him to my advisor? I want to get the kid he punched, another editor who witnessed it and I to come together and talk to my advisor, but I’m unsure how we would go about it. The kid M punched is not sure he wants to tell our advisor. I don’t want to ‘tattle’ but I think his issues will just escalate. However, I’m not sure if we can get him kicked out of newspaper since it is a class, not a club.
Any advice is appreciated.