Lori Keekley
2016 National High School Journalism Teacher of the Year
Full-text of the Lori Keekley ’ s acceptance speech at the JEA / NSPA fall national convention
I
’ ve been very blessed in my life .
Many of you in this room and many beyond have instilled in me not only knowledge of journalism skills , but more importantly , you ’ ve developed my passion for the First Amendment and student media .
This passion for the First Amendment is rooted in an unexpected space . I grew up about 60 miles from here in a two-story brick house surrounded by fields in a small rural area of Indiana . Seven miles from my home was Hagerstown Junior-Senior High School . It was here , and not a big metropolis , where I began to learn the importance of the First Amendment and its application to students . I learned this application through empowerment and not through censorship .
My passion started when my high school adviser , Mr . Dan Diercks , visited my English class to recruit for the newspaper and yearbook , and it continued through his empowerment of not only student decisions , but his support for student voices . This modeling happened when