By 2018-2019 Editors-in-Chief: Syd Olinger and Alex Jackson

This 2017-2018 school year was the last journalism year for two members of faculty that led the Spectator and caxynews staff.  Mr. Jeremy Sands and Mr. William Murphy have both made enormous contributions to the newspaper and the online news and will most certainly leave a lasting impression on all of their students.

Sands has led both the caxynews crew as well as the yearbook staff with great leadership acting as both a teacher and a friend.  From productive working sessions, to discussions of controversial topics, to even some distracting social hours, Sands taught us the many different types of online journalism, including photostories, audio stories, and online polls, which were an all-time favorites to make.  

Sands would overhear staff arguments on why students were angry about the new paint in science center pods, or who listened to Spotify versus Pandora, or Logan Paul versus Jake Paul, and he would always say, “That’s a story right there,” or “Write about it!”  He stressed to caxynews members the importance of finding the best and most unique stories to share our perspective and the facts with the world, or in our case the LFA community.

The Spectator and Lake Forest Academy will be very different next year without Murphy as a (favorite) freshman English teacher and more importantly making the Spectator one of the most prestigious newspapers in the country.  Murphy has been a large of both the English department and athletic teams. He has truly impacted the lives of many of his students including those who have gone on to pursue a journalism career, which shows his passion for and inspiration of his students.   He has undergone a multitude of changes at LFA from change of classroom to change in coaching sports teams, but his dedication to the Spectator has stayed intact.

Sands and Murphy will be greatly missed by many journalism students whose lives they touched. Both teachers will be greatly missed by both digital and print journalism and we wish them the best in the next parts of their lives. As the new year approaches, hopefully the journalism staff will be able to retain the wisdom and lessons learned of the two great teachers.