Lori Andrade knows her Audio-Video Production staff were feeling a little down about everything that had happened yesterday. Not necessarily regretting the trip, but definitely disappointed. But after the awards announcements, she knew this would soon change.
Not third place.
Not second place.
Gold.
The Staff of CDub media hugged each other teary-eyed at the STN (Student Television Network) National Convention. Not because many of their personal belongings were stolen the day before, but because the school show was awarded the esteemed Gold Broadcast Excellence award.
“This is the big thing that we’ve been working towards. That’s the episode I edited. We worked hard on it, and it ended up really good,” junior attendee Lily Henderson said. “So I thought, if we were gonna win one thing, this is what we really worked the hardest for, and every month. And we really pulled something together that I feel like could win. And it did!”
The trip began on Feb. 28, where students made it into their hotel rooms. The next day would consist of competitions, which were full of technical problems. However, after an exhausting day out of the hotel room, students noticed missing belongings. A student’s personal camera, the school’s 35mm camera lens, a Nintendo Switch, and a full backpack went missing while all STN attendees were out of the rooms. The backpack held an iPad and a retainer inside. None of the items were recovered by the Tampa Police Department.
Junior Evan Mclain attended the trip as an AVP I beginner student. Expecting to be more of an “intern,” he was pleasantly surprised with the immediate opportunity to film for competitions competition. He was having a great time on the trip until his belongings, the Nintendo Switch and games, went missing.
“I don’t think of it as that stupid trip where I lost my Switch. I think of it as that really awesome trip where I got to learn a bunch and do film stuff that I never had experienced,” Mclain said. “And then in a separate thought, I think of the weekend where I lost my Switch.”
After discovering the missing belongings, students walked across the hall to alert Assistant Principal Dwight Williams. He led students to talk to hotel staff members, quickly realizing that there were no cameras on the floor. Students could only guess what had happened.
“The doors! Either you left them open a little bit and they would slam shut really loud and shake the whole room, or they wouldn’t close,” Henderson said. “My guess is when we went to the opening ceremony, their door didn’t close all the way. We think that because the whole floor was STN students, somebody knew that we would be out, and went checking for open doors. And then they found the boy’s door opened.”
Police officers arrived, but couldn’t do much. They wrote down contact information and took note of missing items, but never got back in touch. Staff too, were unhelpful as the hotel didn’t have any security cameras in the hallways.
“The boys were all downstairs talking to the police and watching Mr. Williams play Block Blast on his phone, and they were all talking together about what they lost and what they were gonna do about it. The girls were all in our room making vlogs and recording the three separate cop cars that pulled up to supposedly try to help us,” Henderson said. “But even that moment was kind of bonding. All of it was bonding. Especially after getting gold.”
