After more than six years as a print-only publication, The East Rock Record is publishing its first online issue ever.

The newspaper, based at East Rock Community & Cultural Studies Magnet School, has made the move in response to the coronavirus pandemic that has shuttered schools and turned once-normal daily activities into risky (and even forbidden) exercises.

Fortunately, reporters at The East Rock Record spent their final live meeting last month furiously working with Yale mentors in the “newsroom” to complete a variety of news stories.

Their reporting tackled matters from who is doing students’ homework (how often do parents pick up the pencil and can teachers tell?) to concerns about social judgment and pressures to be “perfect.”  Stories took the long view — speaking with a geologist to understand New Haven in the Pleistocene era — and the right-now world of TikTok videos, including a guide for adults about what they should know about the app of the moment.

Who knew that kindness would be the powerful salve that it has become now?

Student reporting teams grappled with the real-life difficulties of moving, being the “new kid” and having to make friends. They tackled the knotty question of how phones should be used in school, especially during recess. Do phones offer a much-needed relief — or do they interrupt the very social purpose and flow of this midday break?

 Others wondered whether students were sacrificing physical exercise because of the mesmerizing lure of video games. Students considered — as we often do in our pages — the city’s verses the nation’s treatment of refugees and immigrants. And, before schools closed, we had a press conference with New Haven Police Captain Anthony Duff.

This issue also includes a section called “Journeys.” As we do most every issue, we consider an idea using the work of photojournalists to pick apart something that has been saturating our consciousness. In the past we have explored the concept of “fake news” and, last issue, “kindness” and how it shows up in the world and whether it can be as much a force as anger and hostility, in a different direction of course. Who knew that kindness would be the powerful salve that it has become now?

All of the story ideas, as always, arise from the curiosities of students in grades 3-8 who are using journalism to understand this world and themselves.

You will also find student opinions on many issues. And we have a special section on COVID-19, the disease that has reshaped the school year and our world. Our student reporters (and a few teachers) have reflected on the experience that is changing all of us, and — hopefully — our institutions for the better.

All of the story ideas, as always, arise from the curiosities of students in grades 3-8 who are using journalism to understand this world and themselves. It is worth paying attention because the adults who work with them find over and over that they have an intense and beautiful wisdom (and joy!) that we all dearly need. We hope you enjoy this first online issue.