Big Scoop Fuels Interest in Journalism

In fall 2020, Lucy Jaffee ’22 had a scoop. For News Decoder, a global news service for young people, Lucy explored a free speech case involving a high school cheerleader, who was suspended from her cheerleading squad after posting some expletive-ridden thoughts about her team and school on social media.
 
The cheerleader won her case against her school district in a lower court, and Lucy secured an interview with her attorney. That’s when Lucy learned the news: The case wasn’t over—the school district had asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider it. “A journalist’s dream,” Lucy says. “This is a story no one else had touched yet.”
 
But it only got better from there. As she shifted her focus to whether the Supreme Court would hear the case and what its decision might be, she scored another big interview with noted First Amendment expert and attorney Floyd Abrams. And the ultimate outcome of the case moved forward exactly as Lucy’s story predicted—the court agreed to hear the case and ruled in favor of the teenager.
 
“That was really satisfying,” she says.
 
The experience fueled an already burgeoning interest in free speech and journalism for Lucy, who started writing for La Jolla Country Day School’s student newspaper, The Palette, then a digital-only publication, as a freshman. “I just loved being able to talk to people and hear their stories,” she says.
 
That interest grew her sophomore year after participating in a New York Times summer program. When she returned to LJCDS, she moved into a content editor role at The Palette, successfully pushed for the publication to get a print edition and took charge of the layout. “Oftentimes, it’s really hard to get people’s attention unless it’s physically in their hands,” says Lucy, who ultimately served as the publication’s editor-in-chief.
 
Her prediction proved right. There was more buzz about the newspaper’s stories in print. Her time at The Palette also taught her about the kinds of articles that draw attention—it isn’t always the hard-hitting ones. In her story, “The loud interruptions we all com-plane about,”  Lucy took a humorous approach as she dug into why so many planes fly over LJCDS during the school day. The answer: They’re coming from the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar. The story drew plenty of attention from her classmates.
 
“I also learned humor is a great way to captivate people,” she says.
 
The next stop for Lucy is Northwestern University, where she will double major in legal studies and journalism. A future as a journalist, lawyer—or maybe a food reviewer—could be in the offing. She also runs the popular @lucysburritoreviews on Instagram, where she rates San Diego burritos. But whatever is next, says Lucy, “I’m excited to find out.”