♪ <open music> ♪ Hello and welcome to Carolina Classrooms.

I'm Laura Ybarra.

On this episode, we're turning the camera over to student journalists and content creators.

Broadcast programs in schools across the state teach students how to be responsible journalists.

They learn interviewing and video production skills and they share their work with us.

So grab a snack, sit back and enjoy the show.

Students in Richland Northeast High School's CavPlex Convergence Media Program report on news and current events.

♪ ♪ But I didn't plan my life past 21, you know.

And now the kids now are not planning their life past 17.

<Xavier Spann> A lot of parents, if you don't bridge that gap, if the gap isn't bridged, you lose the child.

[Narrator]Let's say we have two separate ideas here represented by two disconnected pieces of land.

Where we want to connect these ideas, we have to find a medium or a common ground.

For example, a bridge.

[winding sound effect] And that's where we are right now.

When we look at how separated the education system is from the minority community, we have to find a way to pull it together.

Hence bridging the gap.

Minority dropout rates significantly increase, affecting the graduation rate of minority students.

A very fast decreasing number.

[Narrator] The graduation rate of Black students have always been one of, if not the lowest percentage every year.

The first problem was why Black students who are always finishing at the bottom of the graduation rates every single year.

Black students would always finish in the 70th percentile while everyone else would be in the 80s and 90s.

Now, the new area of concern is not only our Black students finishing last, but even that number is steadily decreasing.

After a slight rise in 2020 due to COVID, and how easily accessible school was from home, we see that number start to dip back down even more than before 2020.

One of the main reasons why this number is consistently low is due to the large amounts of attendance issues across the student population.

Many schools have a failed absence policy where if you don't attend enough class, no matter your grade, you're going to fail.

This leads to a lot of students failing out regardless of the actual education.

If you, if your attendance is messed up, sort of say in elementary, you get to middle school and you get to high school, you eventually stop coming to school.

If there were resources for how to manage truancy attendance, we might see a change of culture.

But again, that change in culture doesn't happen if it always feels like the school and teachers are always at odds with the parents.

[Narrator] Now the reasons as for why Black students always finish last and how this already underperforming number is continuing to drop can be spread out across a number of different ideas.

You can blame the internet, the music industry, the surroundings, the parenting, or lack thereof, as well as a whole list of pondering items, but one major area of concern is the mindset.

Now, yes, the things previously mentioned do have a large impact on the mind of a young, easily influenced adolescent.

But what will it take to break the mold and allow one to have enough self motivation to want to finish school?

When we look at the different upbringings of two students, it's like a natural stereotypical barrier is placed in between the two.

We naturally like to believe one is smarter, more responsible, or even better than the other, which causes us to try and shift our focus to the other because we think they aren't able to keep up or do the things that everybody else can.

Not only the student's already self draining mindset, but this poor mindset carried on by everybody else, puts this imaginary weight on their backs that they aren't able to because we are already counting them out.

We have too many teachers who come into the classroom and frankly just think less of kids of color.

Think kids of color don't have the same capacity to learn to the same degree that White students have.

<Edward Chambers> That academic Band-Aid of, oh, they can't read, they can't write, they can't do math, and not looking at maybe if they felt a little better about themselves.

Outside factors like parents, teachers and things like that causes insecurity within and makes them believe that even though they have the capabilities and they may be smart enough, maybe capable enough, starts to manifest inside them that maybe I can't do that.

<Edward Chambers> Maybe if they could see a light at the end of the tunnel, they really might feel different about school itself.

[Narrator] At some point, we do have to realize that school isn't for everybody.

But that doesn't mean we give up on them.

Now, there are multiple ways to still get an education with easy access, such as the G.E.D.

night school or homeschool.

There are also many alternatives to traditional college, such as trade school, online school, or simply enlisting or getting a job.

But we can't just let the chips fall where they may.

We have to push these things out there.

South Carolina Senator John Scott says these programs put out by the government can help students continue to stay actively involved.

So if we bought these kids back with the lack of broadband other kinds of educational tools they can use and stay at home until either they have finished your time as relates to probation and others that the system may have given them, but still be able to keep up.

<Edward Chambers> One, we have to find ways to meet them where they are.

Two, we have to give them reasons to want to be here every day, but also three, reasons to stay.

[Speaker]This is our opportunity to stand together as athletes, as parents, as mentors, and as leaders in our communities, to show our young men and boys of color with our action that we are behind them and that their success matters.

[Narrator] As a newly elected member of Congress, I would bring attention to more alternative schooling programs.

The low attendance rate and what we can do to decrease it, as well as simply changing the mindset of others around us so more of my brothers and sisters can stay in the classroom and walk across the stage with me.

We had two completely separate sides of the spectrum that would need plenty of work done in order to get them to gel as one.

<Everett Joyner> And once we find a way to cohere these two sides together, there will be a vast connection everybody can walk upon.

Thus bridging the gap.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Can I please get everyone's attention for a few minutes, please?

Yes.

Including you on your phone.

Yeah, you.

Pay attention.

We have something important to talk about.

According to Mental Health America, Latinos are estimated to make up 18.3% of the US population.

Of that demographic, 60% of Latinos reporting suffering from mental illness.

That is more than 10 million people.

Why, some ask?

Well, in most countries in Latin America, mental illness is still seen as taboo, and systemic barriers make it difficult for communities to get help.

One of those systemic barriers is citizenship.

During Obama's first three years in office, his administration deported 1.18 million undocumented immigrants.

In 2012, he alone deported 400,000 immigrants.

This increase the chances of immigrants to experience trauma such as exploitation, violence or separation from their families.

While the Trump administration only deported less than 300,000 immigrants, his anti-immigrant sentiment led to a rise of white nationalism and mistreatment against Latinos.

They're often seen as criminals or bad hombres and as a result, they lose their sense of identity, experience isolation and avoid seeking help for fear of deportation.

How many drugs have I dealt?

(Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) There are more issues than the legal status of an undocumented immigrant or the injustice Latinos endure, or even the language barrier.

It happens in our homes,too.

In the Latino household, children whose parents are immigrants are likely to experience generational trauma.

It is trauma that is passed down through generations.

Second generation Latinos often struggle to overcome the cultural differences between the U.S. and their family's culture.

At a young age, they're obliged to act as a parent to their parents or siblings, such as translating for them.

This is called parentification, and they can cause a child to have trouble setting boundaries or forming healthy relationships.

But it doesn't always have to be like this.

We, the new generation, have the power to change this.

We can achieve this by prioritizing mental health in the Latino community and standing up for what's right.

Reporting for RNETV Live, I'm Evan Cano.

<Laura Ybarra> Our next story comes from CRNTV, Catawba Ridge High School in the Fort Mill School District.

♪ <Adam Barham> If you were to look up artificial intelligence right now, you'd see a whole lot of this.

Tonight, we're taking a deep dive into the world of A.I.

with Chat G P T. It's being seen as both impressive and very creepy and educators across the country are raising the alarm.

<Adam Barham> Article after article claiming that this new technology will completely revolutionize our lives.

But what even is Chat G P T and is it really worth all this fuss?

Simply put, Chat G P T is an A.I.

powered chat bot that's really good at generating convincing human speech.

It can carry a natural conversation, answer tough questions and write pretty much anything you ask it to.

That last thing has gotten the program into a little bit of trouble recently.

You see, there have been some reports of students using Chat G P T to write their school essays for them, leading to a lot of concern from teachers about the technology.

So I decided to test it out for myself to see just how well it could write a school paper.

And I'm very impressed to say that Chat G P T's essay writing is incredibly Ehh!

Don't get me wrong, it's grammatically correct and it's got some nice vocabulary, but when it comes to any real substance, it's got about as much depth as a kiddy pool.

Instead of making A.I.

do your work for you, it might be smarter to let A.I.

assist you.

I mean, I'm using one right now to make my camera mic sound like this, instead of this.

Yeah.

All this to say using Chat G P T to write your next English paper probably won't get you the most desirable grade.

And newly developed Chat G P T detectors have made it possible to find out who really wrote that paper.

But it won't be like that forever.

Pandora's box has been opened.

This technology will only continue to get better with time and it'll slowly become harder and harder to tell the difference between the words written by man and the words written by machine.

And it's going to be up to schools to figure out how to solve that seemingly impossible dilemma for CRNTV, I'm Adam Barham.

<Laura Ybarra> Students at the Cooper River Center for Advanced Studies in the Charleston County School District sent us their fire safety video.

Hello, I'm Cynthia Meneses and I'm Francisco Gonzalez.

We here at the Cooper River Center for Advanced Studies Media Technology Program, partnered with the North Charleston Fire Department back in October to make a public service announcement.

<Cynthia Meneses> Fire and life safety instructor Laura Kondor came to us for the idea of the video.

<Fransisco Gonzalez> We collaborated in the writing of the script and shot on location at the fire station.

<Cynthia Meneses> And received positive feedback, and it was shared through social media on a local and statewide level.

And this is how it went.

♪ [sound of siren from fire truck] Welcome to the House of Fire Safety Horrors.

Enter if you dare.

<sinister laugh> <spooky sounds> <spooky sounds> <spooky sounds> <spooky sounds> <Laura Kondor> Never overplug outlets, power strips or cords.

<suspenseful sound> <suspenseful sound> <suspenseful sound> Don't leave your cooking unintended.

<spooky sounds> <spooky sounds> <spooky sounds> Make sure you have working smoke alarms.

<suspenseful sound> <sinister laugh> Happy Halloween.

<sinister laugh> <Fire Fighter> Be easy and be safe.

Check your smoke alarms.

♪ <Laura Ybarra> Students from the Center for Advanced Technical Studies in Lexington, Richland School District Five shared this short documentary on English country dancing.

♪ <various students talking> <various students talking> ♪ So this started like, right as COVID is still going around, obviously, but ending and like, kids are definitely eager to get out of their homes and see each other.

And so it was kind of funny because you think with English country dancing like kids would not want to do that, but because, like, not a lot of them get to see people anymore.

They wanted to like, get together.

And, so we had a really big turnout the first few times we did it.

And I think that that, it's an outlet for me, definitely, and it's definitely an outlet for like everybody else involved because they got to like, you know, get close contact with people, which they haven't been able to do in so long.

And so it was just kind of fun, something fun.

It became something fun, which we typically think it was a little boring that your moms force you to do, but it became fun because kids are so eager to see each other.

♪ To me is, it's just something that people of all ages can participate in.

It's meant to bring the families together.

I hope that children would do it with their parents, too, like a family event, but it's turned in more of the teenagers.

♪ ♪ ♪ <Mary Leslie> Being a dancer, it's very interesting to see this different type of movement because it's very old, it's very traditional, and it's just walking basically and spinning around.

I think it's fun, especially the upbeat dances.

And so I see it from the dancer perspective and I really enjoy the counting of it and the musicality of it.

It's really interesting how some beats are slower, so you could, you know, be patient and some are faster.

So you have to make sure that you're taking eight counts to spin this way and then eight counts the other way, and it's kind of fun to watch people learn how to count music, which I think is kind of hysterical sometimes, but it's it's definitely fun.

♪ It's certainly worth doing in its own right and it's a fun thing to help to pass along.

When I address the young men separately, it's usually about the conventions of how this sort of thing is supposed to work.

And it is worth learning to be a gentleman.

In the past and I hope this is still true military academies which create officers and leaders, have always included a dancing component, whether it's ballroom or something else, but in in in the direction of etiquette, in the direction of being able to present yourself, think of yourself as a gentleman, it's kind of a basic skill.

In fact, there was an old saying from the Scottish Highlands, if a man can't dance, don't put a sword in his hand.

Perhaps there's something to that, as well.

♪ You know, to use the word dance makes people think something very different I think in a way, than what we do.

It's almost more like a game to tell them dance, they're thinking, I have to have talent, I have to look a certain way.

I have to wear certain things.

People will look at me.

I'm going to be embarrassed and it's not those things.

So, it took a lot of, some months before my friend finally persuaded me to bring the family and we pretty much just held on to the wall.

Most of that dance until people kind of enticed us to join in.

And, so then my family fell in love with it.

♪ I mean, I enjoy it, a lot of aspects of it.

I mean, my dad was a P.E.

teacher and my mom was a music teacher, and I kind of feel like this is a merging of those two things, the P.E.

instruction and the music.

So it's kind of like P.E.

to a tune, right?

So I enjoy that, but I also enjoy, you know, you, you kind of have certain people and even today with their technology, people can kind of live in this little bubble and they don't get out of it.

And that to me, that's kind of sad.

So when you get a group of young people together, families or whatever, it's nice because you're helping some people, are rather secluded to kind of open their circle and get out of that.

So that's exciting to me.

♪ <Mary Leslie> Even though it's a very traditional thing, like English country dancing wouldn't seem like something that kids would be interested in, it's very awkward for one, like having to come and ask a girl to dance is a very awkward thing, but I feel like it's shifted because of the fact that kids don't care anymore.

They just want to see people and that they kind of have gotten over that awkward stage and they've realized that it's really fun to to dance around in circles and stuff, which I think is kind of funny.

But, I don't know, I just I don't really understand why kids like it now, but I mean, I like it.

And so,but I, it's expected that I like it because I love dance.

But for non dancers and people that don't like this kind of stuff, I don't understand why they like it now, other than, it's a chance to see people and it's a chance to learn something new.

And I think that that's intriguing.

♪ ♪ ♪ <Laura Ybarra> The Broadcast and Journalism Academy at Edisto Elementary School in the Orangeburg County School District teaches students communication, collaboration and cooperation skills.

Their students interviewed each other and sent us this video.

Hi!

I'm Imani, and I'm here at Edisto Elementary School, visiting the Broadcasting and Journalism Magnet Academy.

This magnet academy serves third through fifth grade students for multimedia and communication skills are promoted.

Integrating broadcasting and journalism into the classroom instruction.

Many students are given the opportunity to design, produce, write and publish multimedia content including visual arts journalism and telecommunications.

Currently, BAJA's filming segments on health and wellness, So let's check it out!

<room noise> Shh <Student> What are things that stress you out?

School.

Waking up and not being able to get on my game.

In class where, I get, like, say if I have so much confidence in a math problem and I get it wrong.

That stresses me out a lot.

Math.

My friends, thinking about what to say and schoolwork.

Things that's just me now is when I'm doing something and it doesn't go exactly how I want it to or if it's not doing it right, I get really stressed.

Maybe just trying to get stuff done and kind of like under pressure.

School.

Sometimes my chores and that's it.

Things that can stress me out is being under pressure and having to do a lot of things at once.

Mainly like when I do like do hard work or like when like my little brother annoys me.

Things that stress me out are when I have a lot of pressure, like a bunch of schoolwork or a bunch of people talking to me.

When I'm at school and I have to take a test and I get stuck on a question.

Bad grades, not doing my work correctly.

When I read books sometimes like if I read in my mind, my head starts to hurt and I just do this while I'm reading and other things like, if, when the teacher is like saying stuff that's going crazy in my head, I just stop and focus on what she is saying.

How do you relax from that?

When I read books, when I relax, I try to do something else for a while and then try to go back to it so I'm calm and I don't mess anything up.

Just try to not think about it.

Think about something else that's positive.

Okay.

Either play video games or playing football.

Either talk to a friend or like play a game or something.

Watch YouTube.

Something that will maybe bring me excitement or something.

Well, I practice and I just tell myself that it's going to be easy.

Normally, I play with my sister or my dog and that helps me relax.

I relax by taking long, deep breaths.

I just breath in and then I hold my breath and I breathe out.

Normally what I like to do is I like to draw.

I either go play my game and listen to music or go outside with my friends.

I relax by taking like a little nap.

The one thing I do is pray.

Another thing is just breathe, maybe exercise a little.

<Imani> As you can see, we are growing great minds through communication.

Remember to follow BAJA at E. E. S. on Facebook.

This is Imani signing off from Edisto Elementary.

<Laura Ybarra> Thank you so much to the students who shared their work and a big shout out to their teachers who guided them through the process.

You can find more education stories from around the state on our website CarolinaClassroom.org Keep in touch on our Facebook page or by email and let us know what you'd like to see on Carolina Classrooms.

Thank you for joining us!

♪ ♪