Taking the Lede: Colorado Edition鈥攁 45-minute documentary produced by students and faculty members鈥攁ired on Colorado Public Television (Channel 12) on
The documentary details stories of Colorado high school journalism in the wake of the the 1988 Hazelwood Supreme Court decision, which ruled that school administrators could exercise restraint of school-sponsored expression. Colorado was one of a handful of states to subsequently pass laws guaranteeing First Amendment rights for public school students.
Taking the Lede has received several awards, including a in the Broadcast Education Association鈥檚 annual Festival of Media Arts competition. It took , with faculty support, most of 2015 to film and produce the project. The documentary has been shown at high school journalism gatherings across the United States and has also been distributed to dozens of high school journalism teachers in Colorado for use in their classrooms and in their communities.