February 3rd, 9:05 a.m. The 5,000th story is posted on LHSToday, and a decade of tradition is actualized.

The article is titled “8th Grade Night Gives Families a First Look at the High School Life,” and is written by Senior Will Nolan, editor of Broadcast Media and reporter in Online News who has been a dedicated member of the journalism program for these past two years.

While this article does not have any special relevance to the commemorative milestone, it inherently reflects the website’s efforts towards magnifying the importance of reporting on a school level, of digging deep in a limited geographical range.

“I think this is a really cool opportunity because I joined publications last year, and this is a memorable moment for my 40th story to be the 5,000th,” Nolan said.

“I think it’s important to get information out there to the community and students because no one reads newspapers anymore, and our website is one of, not the main way, our students and teachers get their information,” said Nolan. “The fact that it is run by students means that I get to be a part of releasing that information.”

Student creativity has always been valued within Liberty’s publications, however, the genesis of this website’s program blossomed with the drive of a single teacher.

In 2014, Jonathan Hall met together with all the publications teachers in the district, a singular goal in mind: to add an Online News class to the Wentzville class roll. Impassioned by his own perception of pertinence, Hall wrote the first curriculum for the class, and asked of the director to purchase SNO accounts for every high school in the district at the time.

At first, the online newspaper at Liberty began in Magazine, and very little time or dedication was paid to the maintenance of the site. That is, until a small revolution starts as so many do: with the voluntary leadership of an individual, before a preconceived title lends authority to self-enlisted responsibility. Caleb Woods was the first Editor-in-Chief of the website, before a formal staff was ever assembled.

“No one went to the site, no one really knew about it outside of the class. But over the past 10 years, it has been really special to see how the site has grown, and it is fun to go back and look at the analytics and see how it is changed,” Hall said. “It is really important for me to document the history of the school. Over time, yearbooks get put on the shelf and forgotten, but if you look at the website, you can search and access our whole catalogue. Every dance, every team event, all these special moments that have happened in the history of the school chronicled on this website.”

Hall summarizes the program:”LHSToday is the centerpiece of the entire Liberty publications program. All of the classes have contributed content to this site,” he said.

This website is the epicenter of the program, and the epitome of student efficacy. Through our articles, videos, and podcasts, students transcribe their words, stories, and voices, each digital footprint emblazoned with Liberty red.

Advocacy is fulfilled often in the quiet consistency of a united cause. The bombast of reporting twice daily to an audience of which the stories concern in a world polluted with polarization is one achieved first in the magnification of local voices.

Students are lent the opportunity to dilate the troubles of the globe to the relevance of a county, and augment the policy of a school to the very pattern of society. In this juxtaposition, teenagers can thus reveal the irony of political orbit in a heliocentric planet.

But beyond all the fabricated, well-made points in a fabricated, contradictory system, this program is ultimately reliant on the one thing that is constant as long as we write: humanity.

As long as humanity lives journalism can never die. Not really.

Human experiences drip from every page, and they are significant because they are the only stories we can ever really tell with accuracy. Sentiment. Outrage. Satire. Their favorite cookie. With each clause we aim to portray the human condition. Not to summarize, nor philosophize, nor posture towards a greater societal meeting, (despite this article’s particular rambling.) Each story highlights an individuality that reminds us of our sameness.

As long as humanity lives journalism can never die. Not truly.

Budget cuts and staff elimination and political fear can stifle the means of publication for a moment, but heed for a second to the power of the pencil, to the inevitability of storytelling.

As long as humanity lives journalism can never die. Because today, we celebrate our 5,000th example of  human voice.

Here’s to 5,000 more.