Athol High School students launch newspaper

Athol High School advisor Beth Gospedarek of the Athol Advocate student newspaper.

Athol High School advisor Beth Gospedarek of the Athol Advocate student newspaper. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Athol High School students Kaitlyn Rossi, Om Patel and Piper Bailey, the staff of the Athol Advocate newspaper.

Athol High School students Kaitlyn Rossi, Om Patel and Piper Bailey, the staff of the Athol Advocate newspaper. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Athol High School students Om Patel, Kaitlyn Rossi and Piper Bailey, the staff of the Athol Advocate newspaper.

Athol High School students Om Patel, Kaitlyn Rossi and Piper Bailey, the staff of the Athol Advocate newspaper. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

Athol High School student Kaitlyn Rossi, student advisor Beth Gospodarek, and students Om Patel and Piper Bailey, working on the Athol Advocate newspaper.

Athol High School student Kaitlyn Rossi, student advisor Beth Gospodarek, and students Om Patel and Piper Bailey, working on the Athol Advocate newspaper. STAFF PHOTO/PAUL FRANZ

By GREG VINE

For the Athol Daily News

Published: 05-06-2025 9:34 AM

ATHOL – There’s a new newspaper in town – The Athol Advocate, published by students at Athol High School.

Co-Editor-in-Chief Kaitlyn Rossi said the idea for the paper came from students in the AHS afterschool writing club.

“The academic editor, Om Patel, started talking about how he wished there was still a school newspaper, and I didn’t even know one used to exist,” Rossi explained. “I always found the concept of working on a school newspaper really interesting, and I thought it would be exciting. So I and our (writing club) advisor, Ms. (Beth) Gospodarek, thought it would be a good idea to revive it.”

Rossi said several members of the writing club readily agreed to help with the Advocate.

“But we still needed to recruit different writers for every issue, because we don’t have committed writers yet,” she said. “We kind of have to get what we can from who we can right now. We really want to find anyone who has the passion and interest in a newspaper.”

Rossi, a freshman at AHS, said she realizes the new publication has started a bit late in the school year, and the team doesn’t have plans at present to publish over the summer.

“We don’t feel right now that that would be possible,” she said. “We’re definitely going to try to do a back-to-school issue right before summer ends.”

Rossi said current plans call for the Advocate to be a monthly publication. When asked about the response to the first issue, which came out in April, Rossi said many teachers and upperclassmen thought it was a strong addition to the school and that the writing was good.

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“They all seemed pretty interested and excited with the idea that the Athol High newspaper was coming back,” she added.

Rossi said there is currently no budget for printing and distribution of the paper, so it is emailed to staff and students.

Publishing student opinions in the Advocate is one of Rossi’s priorities, she said, and any writing on what’s going on at the school would be considered.

“The reason we started the newspaper was to give students a voice in the school and a way they could express themselves,” she said. “There are a lot of things that we could dig into about what’s going on throughout the school – like how different events are being planned, different events that are going to be put on, who’s participating in those events. There’s a lot going on in the school to look into.”

At the moment, a career in journalism appears to be in Rossi’s future.

“I do want to be a journalist,” she said. “I want to be able to travel and get ‘the story behind the story.’”

Rossi said that her family is very supportive of the idea for the newspaper and her interest in writing may come from her mother.

“She used to write a lot when she was in high school, and she did a lot of poetry – she had a talent for that,” said Rossi.

In addition to Rossi, Patel, and Gospodarek, the paper is also staffed by Piper Bailey, who is the copy editor. The positions of second co-editor-in-chief and format editor still need to be filled.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.