Authors Note: Yay, back to post something short. I had this started and thought to share it. In Stacey's Movie - it was wrong to include Mary Anne even though she wanted it taken out. I took a couple of classes to know that consent for your documentary or any journalistic endeavors is very important. There's a reason why some people aren't named in articles. So I thought this would be an alternative ending to that book.
Enjoy!
"Alright welcome to our last day of class, it's been a wonderful three weeks. I'm going to have everyone sit with their groups and fill out their self-reflection papers. I will be going group to group talking about your project and give you your tape back."
I sat back pretty sure that we got a good grade on the assignment. I, Stacey McGill, was confident for a great grade. We had to fill out a piece of loose leaf paper with our names, role in the group, and the date. Ms. Murphy was going group to group talking to each group about their projects.
From my spot I could see Kristy's group look a little disappointed about something but nodding. From my spot Kristy had raised her eyebrows at me as if she was warning us. Warning us about what? Next to me, Erica and Emily were chatting about something and Pete was using this time to get a head start on our history homework.
"Okay group 4," said Ms. Murphy sitting down with us. "You guys did the student documentary right? Your project was very well thought out and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Documentaries are often hard to get right the first time." Everyone in the group sat up straight at that, so they were going to do well on this project. "First off I do have to apologize. So to do a documentary you often need permission from your subjects to use their interviews and so forth. Your interview with Mary Anne made me realize that if she did not consent to it her interview should not have been in your video."
I felt my head spin a little. So we should have cut Mary Anne's interview as soon as she said that didn't want it used. I felt bad as Emily seemed to freeze in her spot and looked down at her paper. She froze in her spot as Erica and Pete shared an uneasy look.
"This is my mistake for not teaching you this. With filmmaking consent can be a bit of a shaky field which I'm willing to admit. Since it appears you resolved this issue I"m not going to deduct many points. This is something I need to stress for further projects going forward. If a student you interviewed said no, that is considered unethical."
"What?!" said Emily, shocked as the blood drained from her face. "That's not a rule in journalism."
"Emily you must know that it is," said Ms. Murphy gently. "Aside from this little hiccup your project is getting an B+ and I want to go over this reasoning for your project."
I glanced over at Emily, Erica, and Pete who looked at their rubric as I followed along with how we were graded. Aside from including Mary Anne when she didn't want to be, the rest of our assignment was completed with explanations on each point.
After that embarrassing moment and the bell rang we all had our grades for the short takes class. Ms. Murphy was going to teach another session and we were going to move on to woodshop of all things. I'm not sure how much out of that class I was going to use but it could be interesting.
From the corner of my eye I spotted Emily talking quietly with Erica. They both were looking at me and then looked away when I spotted them. Something was up as I knitted my eyebrows looking in their direction still. Finally Erica made her way to me with a sheepish smile on her face with Emily at her heels.
"So I want to apologize about Mary Anne's part of the assignment," said Erica. "You were trying to look out for Mary Anne and we were pushing really hard to keep it in. So I'm really sorry, I should have taken Mary Anne's part out when she said she wasn't comfortable."
"I feel really bad," said Emily who still looked upset. "Do you know where she is so I can tell her this as well?"
"Thanks Erica, thanks Emily," I said, touched even though we had fixed it. "She's getting out of her math class right now."
"Thanks!"
I guess we all took something out of this assignment as I made my way to English. Something told me that the next Short Takes class was going to get just as interesting, even if it was woodshop.
