The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle
The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle
The student news site of The Archer School for Girls

The Oracle

ABOUT

The Archer School for Girls is a contemporary girls school in Los Angeles serving grades 6-12. The Oracle is Archer’s student-run news site, which we update dynamically from late August through the end of May. Archer upper school students who have taken or are currently enrolled in journalism classes, which range from introduction to advanced study, are responsible for all aspects of the Oracle and make all decisions about content. The Oracle goes on summer hiatus from June to late August.

Editorial Policy: Overview

Student media at Archer connects directly to the school’s mission to “promote challenge-seeking, encourage creative risk-taking” and “foster critical thinking and life-long intellectual curiosity” in order to “inspire girls to become confident, ethical leaders, strengthening their voices and capacity to contribute positively to their communities.”

For these purposes, as well as to teach students responsibility by empowering them to make and defend their own decisions, student news media at the Archer School for Girls are designated open forums for student expression where students make all final decisions of content. Therefore, student material published on The Oracle may not reflect the opinions or policies of The Archer School for Girls, and neither school employees nor the school itself are legally responsible for its content.

To view a complete copy of our editorial policy and staff manual, click here.

Oracle Staff

Visit our Staff Page for information about the current Oracle Staff.

Oracle Mission Statement

As a student-run publication, The Oracle’s mission is to provide a forum that encourages authentic voices and discussion in our increasingly diverse educational community. We serve as a resource for the Archer community and beyond to report relevant, interesting and newsworthy information. The Oracle staff is committed to fostering critical thinking in our reporting as well as providing students’ perspectives. Through these endeavors, we strive to strengthen student voices.

Follow Our Social Media for the Latest News

Artificial Intelligence Policy

Aligned with our commitment to journalistic integrity and amplifying students’ authentic voices, The Oracle does not use AI chatbots, including but not limited to ChatGPT, in any form. We have the option to use Otter.ai, a voice-to-text tool, for interviews, and we will always listen to the recorded audio and edit the transcription to ensure accuracy. Additionally, we can use Grammarly for minor grammatical edits, though its use is not a standardized policy for the publication. The Oracle does not use AI-generated images unless commenting on AI topics, a rare case in which we will credit this software.

Letters to the Editor

As an open forum for student expression, the Oracle encourages letter submissions to the Editor in Chief that deal with issues pertaining to student life, welcoming diverse outlooks that may stray from commonly accepted opinions.

  • Letters to the editor should be submitted via the form on the Oracle’s website. Letters must be signed with the contact information provided so authorship can be verified before publication. Anonymous submissions will not be accepted.
  • Letters should not exceed 600 words.
  • The editorial board reserves the right to omit letters it deems unfit for publication — letters that are libelous, obscene, invasive of another’s privacy or that encourage physical disruption of school activities will not be published. The Oracle will not publish spam or advertisements that are submitted as letters to the editor.
  • The editorial board reserves the right to make grammatical modifications or cut long letters to the 600-word limit without altering the message.
  • The board will review each letter upon submission. The letter can only be published after the majority of the board agrees to publish.
  • If a letter is controversial, the editorial board should consider whether a 24-hour delay on the publication of the letter would be helpful.
  • The byline will state the name of the writer. The headline will state “Letter to the Editor:_____” and the featured image will be a stock photo of “Letter to the Editor.”
  • The editorial board will contact the author if the board has concerns regarding clarity, accuracy or fact-checking.
    All letters to the editor become the property of the Oracle upon receipt.

Errors and Corrections

Concerns about errors in the Oracle may be submitted to the student editorial board: [email protected].

  • The editorial board reserves the right to determine whether, in fact, an error has been made through additional research and fact-checking. The EIC will send an initial email to the complainant to let him/her know that the board is looking into the complaint and will get back to him/her as soon as possible with next steps.
  • Significant errors will be determined by the editorial board. When a significant error is made in a published article, the author of the article in question must add a “Correction Statement.” This statement will appear at the bottom of the article in italics followed by “Correction:” and the statement, which will acknowledge the error and describe the correction made. The correction statement must include the date and time the change was made.
  • The EIC will contact the complainant to let him/her know the decision the board reached. If the board agrees an error has been made, the EIC will apologize on behalf of the Oracle and explain how we plan to make amends through the correction statement. If the board determines further action is required to make amends (such as taking down an article that has significant flaws), the EIC will share this plan as well. If the board determines that an error has not been made, the EIC will explain the reasoning behind this decision and offer the complainant the option to write a Letter to the Editor voicing his/her opinion.
  • Minor errors to published digital stories such as punctuation or spelling will be corrected by the editor or author; no correction statement is necessary.

Takedown Requests

The Oracle is a digital news source, but it is still part of Archer’s historical record. The Oracle’s primary purpose is to publish the truth, as best we can determine it, and be an accurate record of events and issues from students’ perspectives. Writers and editors use the 11 “Put Up” steps before publication to ensure the validity, newsworthiness and ethics of each article. For these reasons, the editorial board will not take down past articles except in extraordinary circumstances.

If someone requests a takedown, the board will consider the following questions and actions:

  • Does the article contain libel, inaccurate information, unwarranted invasion of privacy, obscenity or copyright infringement? If so, the editor-in-chief will remove this unprotected speech and add a corrections statement at the end of the article, as per the “Regarding Errors” policy. If, after careful investigation and discussion, the editorial board determines that the article is too heavily saturated with this unprotected speech to maintain, the board may decide to take the article down entirely. The board must come to consensus to make this decision.
  • Does the article harm the requester so significantly that it outweighs all other factors? The editorial board will investigate this claim and weigh it against the value of an unaltered historical record. The board must come to consensus before taking down an article for this reason.
  • If the board receives a takedown request for a staff photo from non-staff contributors who published on The Oracle before the 2017-2018 school year, the board may take down the profile photo since this predated official staff photos and policies.

If the content does not meet any of these circumstances, it will remain posted. Regardless of the outcome, the Editor-in-Chief will respond in writing to the request explaining the board’s action(s) and rationale for the final decision.

Adviser

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the spring National High School Journalism Convention, Kristin Taylor, MJE, announces the 2024 First Amendment Press Freedom Award winners. Twenty-eight schools received the recognition, the highest number in the award's history.

Kristin Taylor, MJE, teaches all levels of scholastic journalism, advising The Oracle and the yearbook, Hestia’s Flame. She is a strong proponent of student voices. A certified Master Journalism Educator, she served on the JEA board as Scholastic Press Rights Director from 2020-2024 and was a 2014 ASNE Reynolds High School Journalism Institute Fellow. In 2020, she was one of four journalism advisers nationally to be named a CSPA Distinguished Adviser, and her program was featured as an exemplar of how to foster belonging and healthy competition in the book “Never Enough” by Jennifer Wallace. She earned a Master’s of Education from Sacred Heart University and a Master’s of Journalism from Kent State University. She is also a Nationally Board Certified English teacher.

Awards

The Oracle started as a small newspaper lunch club that went online in the 2012-2013 school year. It became an elective class in 2013-2014 and began to find its footing as a true journalism program. Since then, the Oracle has won numerous national awards, including winning the NSPA Online Pacemaker (2015, 2018, 2019, 2022) and being an Online Pacemaker finalist (2017, 2021, 2024); CSPA Gold Crowns (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) and Silver Crowns (2016, 2020); earning the recognition of SNO Distinguished Site (2024); placing in top 10 Best of Show at multiple JEA NSPA National High School Journalism Conventions; and being published more than 80 times on Best of SNO since 2017. In recognition of its support of a free and responsible student press, The Archer School for Girls has won the First Amendment Press Freedom Award for the past nine years. Students on The Oracle staff have also won numerous individual awards through NSPA and CSPA.

Professional Memberships

The Oracle is a member of the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association (CSPA).