High Schoolers Who Investigated Their Principal Visit D.C.; President To Hide

WASHINGTON ― At first, student journalists who exposed their new principal’s bogus credentials were worried their story wouldn’t have an impact, as the school administration stood by its new hire. But then the principal resigned and the story received global attention.

“We worked hard on this story and we’re glad that our work was recognized, because it would have felt a little strange to do all that work and just have nothing happen,” Connor Balthazor, 17, said in an interview.

Balthazor is one of the six high school students from Pittsburg, Kansas, who found that incoming principal Amy Robertson had fake degrees, one from a fake school. The team reported its findings in the school paper, The Booster Redux, at the end of March.

“During the interview process with Robertson, the Booster staff found inconsistencies with Robertson’s credentials,” their article stated. “Robertson presented incomplete answers, conflicting dates and inconsistencies in her responses” during a follow-up interview, the students wrote.

A few days after the story came out, Robertson resigned, leading journalists across the country to praise the students for their investigation.

HuffPost invited the six teens ― Balthazor, Gina Mathew, Kali Poenitske, Maddie Baden, Trina Paul, and Patrick Sullivan ― to be our guests at the annual White House Correspondents Association dinner this weekend.

Sadly, President Donald Trump won’t be attending the event because of his contentious relationship with the press. Journalists have gone to great lengths to expose his sham university, fake charity work and mistreatment of women, among other things.

Unlike the would-be principal at Pittsburg High School, however, the president of the United States hasn’t been deterred from office by shame.