The history of journalism at Lake leads all the way back to the founding of the school. The school always had a  newspaper, but it had various forms and names over the decades. For Mr. Friedline, going through the old newspapers and reading the articles is like going back in time.

Most students will probably know “The Blue Print” which was the last printed newspaper at Lake. However, Journalism at Lake existed even before that. Its first name was “The Blue Review” and by reading this article you also know “The Blue Streak Bulletin”. What started as a class with printed papers unfortunately ended due to the COVID Pandemic. Mr. Friedline, who taught the class for several years, remembers that the cost for printing was mostly financed through advertisements. He tried to keep it local and used a local printer and even most advertisements were from Hartville and Uniontown. Friedline added that the advertisements weren’t really to make the businesses grow, he is still thankful that so many business owners wanted to support the students at Lake. Sadly, the class was only able to finish a few articles after the Pandemic started. The following year the “Blue Print” no longer existed. Not only did the Pandemic end the newspaper, it also lacked student interest.

Where the “Blue Print” ended the “Blue Streak Bulletin” started. Under Mrs. Salyer, the new digital newspaper was born in the school year 2022-23. For the following school year, Mrs. Salyer will transform the “Blue Streak Bulletin” from an extracurricular to a class. Mr. Friedline, who said that he enjoyed teaching the class but thinks that he had his time, seemed happy about the “rebirth” of the newspaper. His advice for people who might want to take that class was that journalism is nothing for shy people. Journalism isn’t just about writing a story but also about being curious, researching and interviewing people. It’s about learning more and seeing different perspectives on current topics. If he would be to go back in time and change something, it would be about giving his students more freedom. He would want to encourage his students to write about something they are interested in. 

Whatever the future will bring, history will always be written at Lake.