Davis High student communication found in many forms

PHOTO: Student government gives announcements to Davis High two times a week, Monday and Friday.

By Marion Delarue

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff––

School website, Facebook, Instagram, Bulletin, Student Portal, Canvas, Emails: at Davis High, the problem with school communication isn’t too little information but it may be too much information. 

With an rise in school cancellations and emergencies, it is now more vital than ever that the school communicates effectively with the student body and their parents.

The school’s main platform of information is the DHS website. Its goal is to better inform families and the community about the DSHS program and campus activities.

Bruce Cummings, the librarian teacher in charge of the website, regularly updates it with news announcements and other information. “The school website is now a smaller part (of the school) we use to let the community know what’s up,” Cummings said. 

Like with other media platforms, the person in charge can only update the website with information sent to him. So even important information can’t be published if it isn’t sent to Cummings and meets all the basic requirements which are at least one image and a text explaining it.

The DHS website is broken down into multiple departments each overseen by its own experts. Some of those departments are counseling, student government and athletics.

All counselors are trained to update the website. In addition to multiple forms of presentations and being open to emails and phone calls, counselors also use the DHS platform to keep the parents and students informed. “I think we are accessible in various ways,” counselor Elizabeth Arroyo said.

Student Government is in charge of the DHS website’s club page. For this to work, clubs need to get in touch with the Student Government adviser, Anthony Vasquez. That can be challenging because “(not all) clubs turn their paperwork in,” Vasquez said.

The connection between clubs and Student Government is even harder to create as not all club members are aware of the existence of this link. Junior, Maddy Kang uses social media to promote the different clubs she belongs to. She didn’t know that club’s information could be shared on the school website so she turned to Instagram “just because a lot of students use it.”

 Another platform the DHS community can use to keep up with the news is the HUB, the student-created news source for DHS. The HUB’s mission is to keep the community updated and give a voice to the voiceless.

HUB reporters and editors achieve this by working together to find and write the best news stories for the public. According to HUB reporter Elliot Dejong, an article is written by a reporter and reviewed by other student journalists, including an editor-in-chief, before being published. 

When DHS faces emergencies such as alarms and threats, HUB reporters work hard to keep the school updated. The urgency of the situation pushes student journalists to work much more quickly than usual with people who are less likely to talk. The school district issues press releases, but writing about emergencies means you were “lucky to be out front,” Max Davis-Housefield said.

According to the Davis Joint Unified School District website if an emergency of any sort happens at school emails are “only sent out to parents and guardians who opt-in the service”. 

There is no information on how students are kept informed in these situations; they are however advised to “remain calm” and “not perpetuate rumors (including) calls, texts, emails, and/or social media.”

Social media is becoming a more important source of information within the DHS community. The high school even has its own Facebook account. “(The Facebook account) is very important because it allows people to know when things are happening,” Nancy Serrano-Montoy said.

Student Government uses Instagram to let people know what is happening, attend events, or just dress up for a spirit day, Student Government also uses the DHS website, the Blue Devil Portal on canvas, and emails, but Instagram “(gets) a lot more (done), a lot faster,” Vasquez said.

Emergencies, however, prove how important school emails are to the high school. Most information is shared through emails. This includes the daily bulletin written by Serrano-Montoy which she shares through the BDP on Canvas, the school Facebook account, and the DHS website.

“(Students) come and ask about information without looking at their Canvas emails first,” Serrano-Montoy said. “They depend a lot on the website.”