Published May 31, 2023
BY NICOLE MIRSKI
The Cougar Catch, the first Carmel Middle School newspaper, made its debut in February and is currently working on its third and final issue of the year.
The newspaper is led by CMS teacher Angee Morriss and two eighth-grade editors, Ruby Iranmanesh and Ava Daniels. The staff consists of eight to twelve student writers in various grades. In each issue, they cover a wide range of topics, from world news to their own jokes page.
The Newspaper Club started when a couple of eighth graders realized that there weren’t many places for students to get news about their campus or to have their voices heard.
Cougar Catch (courtesy of CARMEL MIDDLE SCHOOL)
“Everyone has a voice that is worth hearing,” says Daniels. “Every single one of those articles came with a voice behind it that the school got to hear. I think that if you have a voice, you should use it, no matter what.”
In the March-April edition, The Cougar Catch ran stories about the end of daylight savings time, damaged tennis courts, three sports teams that competed in the winter, multiple events happening at CMS, a book review, socks that show support for students with Down Syndrome, and a page dedicated to jokes and riddles.
Even though a handful of the writers, including the two editors, are at the end of their middle school experience, they hope that The Cougar Catch will continue and even expand from an online-only news site to a physical one after they head to high school.
“If we were able to print, more people would be able to read it,” says Iranmanesh. “If it was on paper, it could be passed out around the school and then the students could show it to their parents.”
With the new May-June issue to be released before May 22, students were hard at work planning and brainstorming ideas.
“Ruby and I usually have what we call a ‘table meeting.’ This is where students come up with ideas, and we talk about them,” says Daniels. “We let the students be really creative and have fun with whatever they’re writing about. We want them to have as much creative liberty as possible.”
Check out The Cougar Catch on the Carmel Middle School website.
