Katie Grumet is the page editor for James Bowie High School in Austin, Texas. Grumet works alongside her peers to help inform students and lawmakers about the significance of student press laws.

“Every student journalist deserves to feel protected and heard. Through censorship, student journalists are discouraged and punished for speaking their truth. We should create an environment where we encourage students to keep the community informed and speak their truth. Student journalists play a crucial role in informing and covering events happening in the community. Without student journalists, high school students become an unrepresented and silenced community.”

What I Do

As the Education Officer, I help inform people about New Voices and raise awareness about the lack of legislation and press freedom that student journalists in Texas experience. It’s my job to create content and give presentations that help inform people about the importance of laws and legislation for student journalists. I plan to create social media posts, presentations, and articles to help spread the word.

One of my goals as an Education Officer is to get a representative to sponsor a New Voices bill.
In addition to this goal, I would also like to help create engaging and informative content to help inform people about student journalism rights and legislation. I plan to do this by giving presentations at journalism events and school board meetings and working with other New Voices officers on social media content. I will measure my success by the number of supporters we gain this year and by tracking data such as how often people interact with the content I create.