Columbia Heights High School students are filled with desire to be heard and seen, and one outlet that they use is the school’s newspaper, the Heights Herald.
Christopher Polley teaches the journalism class at the high school and also runs the HNN morning show (Heights News Network, which is displayed every morning to students) and the Heights Herald. Polley has been teaching for 18 years, six at Heights.
A major motivation for Polley is witnessing the pivotal moment when students discover their passion, and the “light bulb goes off” in their head. The Heights Herald staff often experiences that moment of everything clicking and he helps them take the steps necessary to achieve that.
Polley’s road to teaching journalism is a fate of sorts. It began in his high school, writing music reviews for its newspaper. He continued writing music reviews and got into radio shows as well. When he began teaching at Heights, the journalism teacher was retiring. Polley began running the Heights Herald, and it has progressed into what it is today.
Heights Herald has expanded its coverage to new social media platforms. From TikTok to Instagram (@ Heightsherald), the accounts are filled with posts from the students monitoring the latest trends. The new branch into social media has brought out increased connection and popularity for the newspaper.
Columbia Heights has a wide range of ethnicities in its students, with 87.3% minority enrollment (according to usnews.com) and 44.9% of that being Hispanic. Due to this factor, the Heights Herald has introduced its first Spanish-English editor. The newspaper is all-inclusive.
Polley’s goal is to let students be heard and have their stories brought to the public eye. This mission is ongoing. Students have creative control to expresses themselves in a new light.
Daphne Kleinschmit is interning with the Northeaster this summer.
Journalism teacher Christopher Polley after completing an edition of the Columbia Heights Herald. (Daphne Kleinschmit)