Cat’s Eye News staff reacts to teachers not showing broadcasts during second hour

Every Monday and Wednesday, students and staff receive an email to their inbox from Cat’s Eye News adviser Nicholas LeTarte. Within the email is a link to the next day’s Cat’s Eye News broadcast, along with a sentence underneath it that is bolded, italicized and underlined. 

“Teachers, it is expected that you show this during your 2nd Hour…”, with “2nd Hour” in fire red text. 

This is a change from “Teachers, please show this during your second hour…,” which was sent out in the emails at the beginning of the year with the words “second hour” being the only ones bolded and underlined.

“I actually got feedback from some of my students saying that my messaging was too nice. And it felt like I was giving teachers options when, in theory, second hour is longer to show the news. So it is expected that they show the news,” LeTarte said.

Executive producer Lisa Hoy said the modification of the font of this line was a decision LeTarte and the staff of the Cat’s Eye News made together. 

“All of us were giving ideas like ‘Oh, what if we use this sentence’ and then Mr. LeTarte was like, ‘No, that’s too direct.’ And so finally, we all settled on bolded,” Hoy said. 

The Cat’s Eye News is not allowed to explicitly say that teachers must show the broadcast in their second hour. Hoy said they have to be careful of their wording of the sentence. LeTarte said the word “mandatory” is too direct to use in the emails.

“I’m not their administrator. So I’m not their boss,” LeTarte said. “Plus there’s really no way to show accountability. I can’t come around and bang on doors and be like, ‘You better be watching the news.’”

Hoy said she believes watching the Cat’s Eye News should be mandatory in all second hour classes because the broadcasts have important information for students to hear. 

“Quite frankly, not a lot of us care that people show it or not, because we’re just kind of like we know we did it and we’re proud of it,” Hoy said. “We know you’re missing out on the information. That’s your own problem.”

Hoy said she felt disappointed when teachers did not show broadcasts in class, but what was a sense of disappointment among the staff eventually changed into something more light-hearted. 

“It’s become kind of a joke in the Cat’s Eye News roll, like, ‘Oh, tell them to do it this time. Maybe they’ll do it,’” Hoy said.

In the end, Hoy said the lack of broadcast-watching in some classrooms hasn’t beat the morale of the news staff. 

“We were just kind of like, ‘Oh, well, then we’ll just keep making more broadcasts. What are they gonna do?’” Hoy said. “It was kind of like ‘Oh, well, OK. Not much we can do. So let’s move on and just make the most of it.’”