Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Grant Wernick was the photographer who took the photos in the special section which walked away with the lion's share of awards in the annual Sober Graduation journalism competition.

Student journalists win big

By John Pancharian

Los Gatos High School's student newspaper, El Gato, took the lion's share of prizes in the Sober Graduation journalism contest, winning the first place overall and best writing awards.

The Sober Graduation/Avoid the 13 Foundation recently announced the winners of the March event in which police "arrested" student journalists, who then wrote about the experience to educate classmates about drinking and driving. Forty-one Santa Clara Valley high schools participated, including Saratoga High School, which won for best drawing.

"I've seen a real boost of confidence and self-assurance," El Gato advisor Jeff Mount said of his journalism students. "We saw other people's coverage and we knew we'd done well."

Writers Emily Jardine, David Friedland and Lisa Asmus and photographer Grant Wernick covered Sober Graduation for El Gato, which ran a four-page insert in its April 3 issue. Los Gatos-Monte Sereno Police Detective Carl Lewis simulated a traffic stop in the high school parking lot, performed field sobriety tests on the "driver," Emily Jardine, placed her in handcuffs, then drove the ersatz delinquents to Central Jail in San Jose where they were to be booked. Time ran a bit short for the booking, but the students did receive a tour of the jail's maximum security facility, as well as the morgue.

"It makes me never want to stay there," Asmus said of her visit to the jail, where a fight broke out among inmates while the students were visiting.

Jardine wrote in her article, "Even though the field sobriety tests were only a simulation, I found myself nervous and fidgety while taking the tests."

Then there was the morgue. The students' coverage described the employees as "surprisingly chipper," while outlining the autopsy process. Students viewed shrouded corpses while there, a point in the tour likely designed to encourage reflection on the possible consequences of drunk driving.

"I think one thing that really made it for us was the morgue shots," Wernick said of the Los Gatos win. "El Gato's insert included a huge shot of a highway patrolman viewing a corpse on the cover, more corpses on page three, and a shot of the "scary yet intriguing" coroner's tools.

Wernick said he wasn't sure the LGHS journalists learned more about drunk driving as a result of the experience, "but it was a lot of fun and a great opportunity to take some interesting pictures," he added. He said he was very cognizant of the presence of other journalists while shooting, and tried to ensure El Gato would have the best photos.

Jan Ford, public information director for Sober Graduation, praised El Gato's effort, saying the breadth of the coverage was very good. "Everything was there," she said. "They covered it from a feature standpoint and a hard news standpoint." Ford added that the judges liked the tables of DUI facts included with the articles.

El Gato won $1,000 for the best overall coverage, and $250 for best writing.

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