Spotlight on The Fellows: Jessica Boehm

Jessica Boehm reports at the Western Range SASS shooting event in Northern Phoenix. Photo by: Emilie Eaton

Name: Jessica Boehm, Hearst Fellow

School: Arizona State University

Style of reporting: Long-form written stories, photo stories and documentary production

Previous internship or work experience: In the Phoenix Metropolitan Area, I have interned at the East Valley Tribune and Cronkite News Service. I have also freelanced for Republic Media and recently finished my thesis project, a documentary about the health effects of radiation from the nuclear testing in the 1950s-60s.

Favorite reporting experience: The most memorable reporting experience I’ve had so far was touring the Nevada Test Site and seeing where nuclear tests were performed during the Cold War.

Connect with me: @jessicaboehm93

Website: jessicaboehm.com

Favorite app: Groupon — I live for a good bargain.

Group Proposes Arming LGBT Community Against Hate

By Allison Griner

Screenshot: pinkpistols.org

It was barely June 1 when two men were gunned down in Seattle’s Central District. They were both young twenty-somethings, headed home from a night of clubbing. And they both happened to be gay.

Police continue to wonder if their deaths were the result of a hate crime. FBI statistics indicate that nearly 20 percent of hate crimes are motivated by sexual orientation.

But there may be a way to reduce violence against the LGBT community, according to one advocacy group.

The Pink Pistols propose firearm education for the LGBT individuals, because, as their website puts it, “Armed queers don’t get bashed.”

“The more people know that members of our community may be armed, the less likely they will be to single us out for attack,” it said.

The group was founded in 2000, after an article entitled “Pink Pistols” was published on Salon.com urging homosexual people to arm themselves. Since then, the Pink Pistols has launched chapters in the U.S., Canada and South Africa, with the aim of teaching the responsible use of firearms.

Pink Pistols counts 28 active chapters on its website, but its Fall 2013 status report suggests that number is on the rise. “The Pink Pistols have begun to grow again, with many inquiries as to how to start a chapter,” the report said. “We have a new chapter in Texas, the first in many years.”

Since the report was released, Pink Pistols has reopened chapters in Asheville, Salt Lake City and the Twin Cities.

Almost a year ago, Paige Biron, a 55-year-old transgender woman, helped to kick-start the dormant Seattle-area Pink Pistols chapter. A former Marine officer, Biron had been teaching firearm safety courses when she decided to join Pink Pistols.

Her Pink Pistols chapter is mostly made up of beginners. “Mostly they’re curious about firearms. They’ve never fired them before,” Biron said. She tries to organize a get-together at least once a month, starting with a firearms safety talk and ending with a trip to the gun range and lunch.

Armed teachers in Utah: Law-abiding and unknown

April Jolley is a stay-at-home mom of three boys, Cohen, 2, Drew, 4 and Gavin, 6. She said she would feel comfortable with a teacher having a gun in her son’s classroom if they have completed training.
(This is a screen grab from a video interview). Amy Slanchik

By Kate Murphy and Amy Slanchik

April Jolley is a stay-at-home mom with three young boys who will all attend Ensign Elementary School in Salt Lake City.

“When they leave for school I pray every morning that they’re safe,” she said.

Jolley was unaware that one of her son’s teachers could potentially have a gun in the classroom.

After the deadly shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, several school districts throughout the United States have chosen to allow teachers to be armed in the classroom, with hopes that the teacher could protect students and faculty from being injured or killed by a gunman.

However, in Utah a law that allows this has been in place for more than a decade. The law enables anyone with a concealed carry permit, including teachers, to bring his or her firearm into any K-12 public school building.

Jolley, who moved to Salt Lake City about three years ago, feels that her kids’ teachers should have the right to defend themselves and protect their students rather than be left vulnerable if an attack should happen.

“I’d feel more comfortable that way, then if something happened they would be better protected as long as the teacher knew how to use it,” Jolley said. “I know there are a lot of people who don’t know how to use a gun. It’d be good for them to be required to take a course beforehand along with getting a gun license.”

Amy Dayton is a first grade teacher at Timpanogos Elementary School in Provo, Utah. She said she wouldn’t carry a gun at her school because she hasn’t been trained, but wouldn’t mind if other teachers did. Amy Slanchik

First grade teacher Amy Dayton of Provo, Utah, said she wouldn’t carry a gun in the classroom because she hasn’t been trained, but wouldn’t mind if other teachers she works with at Timpanogos Elementary School did carry.

“If you are at the mercy of others, it could almost be a good thing,” Dayton said.

Teachers in Utah are not required by law to tell anyone about bringing a gun to school. Parents, principals, fellow teachers and superintendents of school districts may have no idea if a teacher is carrying or how many guns are in the school — if any.

“It’d be good to know, but then you have the worry,” Jolley said. “I like the idea that it’s by chance.”

Jolley said a school shooting is not something you could prevent whether the teachers are armed or not.

“I am fearful, but it’s not something I try to think about everyday.”

Amy Slanchik is an Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation News21 Fellow.

Spotlight on the Fellows: Erin O’Connor

Erin O’Connor reports in Colorado. Photo by: Morgan Spiehs

Name: Erin O’Connor, Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation Fellow

School: Arizona State University

Style of reporting: Documentary

Previous internship or work experience: Photo and reporting intern for the Arizona Republic Videographer for NBC 12 News, and multimedia editor for the State Press.

Favorite reporting experience: Traveling to Chiapas, Mexico to report on government housing and the forced relocation of indigenous populations.

Connect with me: @MrErinO

Website: erinpatrickoconnor.4ormat.com

Favorite app: RunPee

Spotlight on the Fellows: Kelsey Jukam

Kelsey Jukam reports in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Photo by: Jon LaFlamme

Name: Kelsey Jukam

School: The University of Texas at Austin

Style of reporting: Investigative reporting, long-form narrative writing

Previous internship or work experience: I interned at The Austin Chronicle, was the News Editor and a layout editor for Southern Methodist University’s paper The Daily Campus, was the Travel Editor for Pi Magazine at University College London, and have had my work published in The Dallas Morning News and The Austin American-Statesman.

Favorite reporting experience: Last summer I spent a month in Cairo reporting on sexual harassment and violence and the NGOs that are trying to change how women are treated in Egypt.

Connect with me: @kelseyjukam

Website: kelseyjukam.pressfolios.com, and I also have a travel photography blog at treasureseekertravels.tumblr.com

Favorite app: Instagram