Is it a story?

I don't actually report back to school until August 5th, but I was up in my classroom today, finishing up some last minute stuff and trying to get myself organized. Because I took on Yearbook, I've gained 5 computers, a box of broken cameras, a giant teacher desk, a monstrosity of a filing cabinet and approximately 24892039488539843498 old yearbooks from around the country that span the course of the last 35 years. The organizational oasis I had created for myself before school let out was long gone.

In addition to finding piles of Yearbook crap all over my classroom, and my desks put back in some sort of cracked out jigsaw puzzle version of the sketch I left behind, I also came across two very interesting voicemails. I actually only checked my messages because I was meeting with my yearbook rep, and she was running late, so I wanted to make sure she was still coming. So, I checked my messages expecting there to be a call from her, saying she was cancelling, or in an accident, or held up at another appt, whatever. But I got something else entirely....

And I find the timing on this... so odd. Over the last two weeks, we heard a lot of people tell us about their investigative stories that won them awards. Or their coverage of events that did wonders for revamping their papers. Or the little bit of digging that lead to a huge discovery. And the whole time, I'm sitting there thinking, "How often does a story like that come along? And really, how much investigative journalism can a high school kid do?" I mean, it would be awesome to scoop the paper on some amazing piece of news, but I feared my kids were considerably more interested in themselves than the world around them.

But it was like the journalism gods answered my prayers, or something. I had 2 messages on my voicemail (both like 10 minutes long) from a "concerned citizen"... I can't go too far into detail, because after sharing this information with one of my Asst. Principals, I've been asked to keep things on the D.L. until we have a chance to look into a little more closely. But basically, I have what sounds like an elderly man begging the newspaper (the high school paper, at that), to tell his story. He says he was in a severe car accident, that was actually an attempt on his life. It was a cover up because someone was trying to get rid of him because he was going to expose the fact that the junior college system in California was actually a covert marijuana smuggling operation. He was so severely injured in the accident that he was actually pronounced dead, but then was revived enroute to the hospital. He suffered severe brain injuries and had to relearn basically everything. He claims that he had a shot at swimming in the Olympics, but all hope was lost because of this accident. He also alluded to the fact that his parents may have been killed in the accident. He left me his name, his mailing address and his phone number. He claims he is a graduate of Orange Glen HS. When I attempted to return his call today, I got a voicemail requesting A) Prayers B) a good woman to marry him and C) money (in that order, surprisingly). All of this is very strange, I realize. But honestly, it's too insane to make up. I have a good imagination, but I don't think I could have cooked this up.

So what do I do? I've given his name and contact info to my AP, but I don't think this guy is going to stop calling. I'm meeting with my newspaper editors in the next week or two, but I don't know if I should put them in touch with some guy who could very well be a total whack job. I guess that's another area where HS journalism differs from professional journalism---our reporters are still kids, and we don't want to put them in harm's way.

I've googled the guy myself, and not found much. I think the only real hope is to find out when he went to OG, start looking through yearbooks and archived newspapers to see if there is even a story here. I mean, it's sensational to claim that your car accident was actually an attempt on your life... And obviously, we wouldn't print anything like that unless we could prove it.

I feel like this has the potential for a great teaching moment... But I need some direction. Help, y'all!

Jessica Young

Orange Glen High School

Escondido, Calif.