A Loyola University student and freelance reporter for The Lens today was presented with a national award for furthering the principles of the First Amendment, honoring her work with The Lens’ Charter School Reporting Corps.
The Society of Professional Journalists, at their annual Excellence in Journalism conference in Nashville, gave Lucy Dieckhaus the Robert D.G. Lewis First Amendment Award for her work with The Lens. The award is given each year to a student journalist who has shown outstanding service to the First Amendment through the field of journalism.
Dieckhaus, a senior in the School of Mass Communication, is among about a dozen reporters who cover charter schools for The Lens. She fought for the First Amendment by writing articles addressing open-meeting laws during charter board meetings.
This award is the second time The Lens has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists. In 2012 founder Karen Gadbois received The Ethics in Journalism Award.
Congratulations Lucy Dieckhaus on the award and recognition for your coverage of charter schools for The Lens, which brings us to the next juncture, and it’s a doozey! Few individuals, practically no one, attends public charter board meetings, and these boards were a problem before. They did not grow morals or a conscience when the media pulled out. THE LENS – U NEED TO RETHINK THIS ONE – without funding! By and large, these nonprofit (ha!) charter boards constitute (are some of) the most corrupt components in charter school functioning. In common terms, the foxes are running the hen house, with a few well-placed, overpaid, protected chickens who are “on-the-take.”