COURTROOM AS A CLASSROOM 

For Fanshawe Broadcast Journalism student Ashton Patis, the courtroom became her classroom on March 5th.  From opening arguments to victim impact statements and sentencing, Ashton provided reports from the trial of Michael Rafferty.  These reports, interviews and tweets all served as her "projects" to be graded.  

Tara McDonald in a scrum

Ashton Patis in the X-FM newsroom 

Her work was so impressive, she continued as a free lance reporter for other news outlets after the school year ended.  Working alongside other media professionals at the often gut-wrenching murder trial was stressful at times but a great learning experience.  In February, Patis offered to staff the trial for her reporting rotation - part of her final term before graduation.  She came through with an award winning performance and we are very proud.  

We are also thankful to the London media for being so friendly to students who join them in the 'trenches..'  ( In this case, a special thanks to Avery Moore of 98.1 Free FM). 

Our philosophy at Fanshawe has always been you can't learn journalism ONLY sitting in the classroom.  You have to experience stories in a very real way in order to tell them properly.  Sometimes these stories are easy to tell and sometimes they are gruesome, but important to our democratic process.   Justice for an innocent young girl was foremost in her mind throughout the trial.  An important lesson about journalism's high calling.  

Ashton (left) interviewing Tori's father Rodney Stafford.