Temple University students print newspaper for schools destroyed by California wildfire

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Running a student newspaper in a city like Philadelphia, there's no shortage of big stories.

"With Temple, we're right in the middle of it all," said Samuel O'Neal, Editor-in-Chief of The Temple News.

This week, though, some of the biggest stories in The Temple News student newspaper have nothing to do with Temple University.

Instead, they are stories about two California schools, both of which were devastated by wildfires that ripped through that state in January.

One of them is Palisades Charter High School in Pacific Palisades, California.

"Forty percent of the school was destroyed in the wildfire," said Lisa Nehus Saxon, who is a teacher and advisor to the student newspaper staff at the high school.

With so much damage, the student newspaper staff had difficulty doing a digital version, let alone print.

"We haven't been able to print here because most of our local businesses haven't been able to afford to advertise since COVID," said Saxon.

That's where Temple's newspaper staff comes in. It was an idea by Journalism Professor Claire Smith, who knew Saxon from their sports journalism days.

"We were the first two women to cover Major League Baseball," said Saxon.

Smith had the idea to have her student journalists at Temple help the students at Palisades Charter High and another school, Pasadena Rosebud Academy K-8.

The Temple students would print Palisades' newspaper and drawings and writings by Rosebud students, making it an insert in the middle of Temple's newspaper. The insert includes a QR code where people can donate to help.

"It's so important that people know this was done by students," said Smith.

"My students laid out the pages here and we transmitted them electronically," said Saxon.

"They're a lot better than I was when I was their age," said O'Neal.

With articles, photos and drawings by the kids, the special edition tells a story of resilience that the California students now get to keep.

"This is something they can tuck away and tell their children and grandchildren about it," said Smith.

It's all thanks to a university nearly 3,000 miles away, that helped kids in California show their story didn't end with the wildfire.

"I hope that's their memory of this disaster," said Saxon, "that people came to help."