The "Panasonic Kidwitness News" program at Neval Thomas Elementary School may be the only news program in Washington not covering impeachment proceedings. Instead, one recent day, the 35-member news team was busy taping the school’s Student of the Month ceremony.

The students at Neval Thomas, 650 Anacostia Ave. NE, write, produce and direct their own daily news program along with educational videos that have won numerous national awards.

The nationwide program, sponsored by Panasonic electronics, allows elementary school children to learn hands-on about broadcast technology. They serve as news anchors, cameramen, editors and scriptwriters. The students usually spend time after school in workshops learning equipment, reviewing tapes, editing and compiling story ideas.

Neval Thomas students won first place this year in a national competition with "Here Today, Gone Tomorrow," a video about child abuse prevention that included a montage of students and their words on child abuse. Written, produced and directed by the students, the video was dedicated to Neval Thomas student Sylvester Brown, who was fatally stabbed last summer.

The Kidwitness News team videotapes most important events at the school and some in the surrounding neighborhood.

On one recent day, in the back of the auditorium, sixth grader Andre McManus focused his camera on Principal Patricia McCrimmon, who motioned for everyone to stand up to sing the school song. Surrounding him were the rest of news team in white Kidwitness T-shirts. Some members of the team rose to join the rest of the audience. Others turned around to watch the ceremony on one of the televisions behind Andre.

"No, you all need to be standing up and facing the front," said art teacher Percy Boone, who advises the Kid-witness team. "Andre knows what he’s doing."

Andre, also an anchorman for the show, says it took him two weeks to learn to work the camera.

The song ended and Principal McCrimmon gave her thank yous. She acknowledged the team. "And I want to thank Mr. Boone and the Kidwitness team for taping today’s ceremony," she said.

Quickly the students began to break down the equipment.

"Take the lights back to the studio and get the microphone off the stage," Boone said. "And let’s get this equipment put away."

Demetri Golden, one of the show’s producers, helps fellow team member Andre take the camera off the stand and place it in the case. Some team members retreat to their classrooms for their homework assignments while others carry the camera, lights and microphone back to the studio and lab. And so ends another production day for the team.

Each month, the news team tapes the Student of the Month program along with many other events that the team may submit for national competition. Boone said Neval Thomas got involved in the program through students touring D.C.’s cable television production facilities. Since the school became a part of the Kidwitness news program, the team has won five awards.

Kidwitness participation is open to any student in grades 3-6 who is recommended by a teacher. More than 220 participating schools across the country received two cameras, lights, televisions and an editing machine from Panasonic as part of the program. Boone said teams submit videos in the news, public service and spotlight categories. He said they get some of their stories from the community. The team has covered Congres-sional Black Caucus events and has interviewed NAACP Executive Director Kwesi Mfume.

Sometimes the students submit their own scripts and ideas.

Demetri, a producer and scriptwriter, said he just finished a script. He said he hopes to go into broadcast journalism when he becomes an adult. Besides the technical areas, Demetri says he’s learned more. "It’s taught me to be a good leader," he said.

Fifth grader Ashley Robinson, who wants to be a doctor, said she does a little bit of everything for the team.

Sixth-grader Maryann Whitaker also said she does several things but enjoys producing and directing. "I try to help and make sure everyone is where they should be," Maryann said. "It’s teaching us to be more responsible."

Fifth-grader David Moore is an editor.

"My job is to take out the rough parts and find the best ones," he said.

Moore said he’s also a switcher. He describes this job as the person who switches the cameras back and forth.

Parents of some of the students helped to build the school’s studio and laboratory. The studio includes an area for anchors to sit, two cameras with tripods, two editing machines, televisions and their awards. The lab is where they store all the equipment and house their video archives.

"We’ve been building on the studio for a while," Boone said. He said grants and donations from the community have enabled the team to do more. One of their goals, Boone said, is to install a closed-circuit television for the entire school to view the team’s morning news show.

Copyright 1998, The Common Denominator