The Story Behind the Story: Fox News Interviews Juab Students

Being interviewed by a real reporter is an exciting experience, one that several Juab High School students were able to experience on the tenth. 

The new mandate by Governor Herbert dictated that all extra curricular activities were on hold, except for any state championships. This created concern in students, who decided to take action.

Savanah Rasch, sophomore, contacted Fox News to give students an opportunity to voice their opinions. 

She posted a picture on her Instagram story, asking for others to DM her their concerns.

After she posted a friend sent it to me and I decided to reach out to Savannah. She allowed me to join her in the interview to represent the drama department. 

I asked my friend Kaitlyn Allred to join me. I wanted her to come for moral support, but mostly because she is the drama president. 

I planned to focus on the fact that football was being allowed to finish their season, but the drama department wasn’t. The students in the musical felt slighted. Once again, it seemed football was getting preference over any other sport.

Kaitlyn said, “My main objective was to express my frustrations. I was very frustrated with the new mandate and as a teenager it’s really easy to feel like my voice doesn’t matter and I have no control over anything. It was a really great opportunity to have an interview with Fox News and to have a platform to express my feelings openly”. 

We knew that Fox News would take our words and use them to whatever purpose suited the story, so we were curious to see how it turned out. 

In the end, the article focused on mandatory testing. 

I found this interesting since we hardly talked about mandatory testing at all. Kaitlyn and I were portrayed as the mental health advocates. We definitely did try to bring awareness to mental health, but it wasn’t our main focus. However, neither of us were upset as this is something we care about.

“I wasn’t too concerned about the testing aspect of the new mandate and didn’t express a lot of feelings with that but that’s the angle they chose to use for the segment… I think that mental health applies to all aspects of Covid- whether it’s the masks or the testing.” Kaitlyn remarks. 

She says she was a little surprised by the angle they took. “I was told that we were just going to express our frustrations with the new mandate and I didn’t realize they were going to specifically choose to focus on the testing part of the mandate.”

It was intriguing to see the difference between the actual interview and the story. The interview, held over zoom, lasted over half an hour, yet the story was two minutes and seven seconds. That was expected, but not being interviewed by a real reporter was not.

The man who interviewed us did a good job and none of us gave it a second thought. At five o’ clock the next evening, after nervously sitting in my living room for fifteen minutes, I was surprised to see someone different than the man we talked to.

Now I realize I should’ve expected it, but in the moment it was a funny realization. 

Nerves were prevalent for many. “It was nerve wrecking because I didn’t know what to expect!” Kaitlyn said.

Overall, Kaitlyn thought the experience was a good way to make our voices heard. “[My favorite part was] being able to have a platform where I could feel heard and that my feelings and frustrations with the new mandate were validated.”

We are grateful to Fox News for giving us this opportunity, and we encourage others to find a way to make their opinions heard!

To watch the interview: https://www.fox13now.com/news/local-news/high-school-student-athletes-react-to-weekly-covid-19-test-requirement