The Zephyr, a student-produced newspaper at Whitehall High School, continues a 50-plus-year print tradition, thanks to some dedicated journalism students and their always-encouraging teacher.

Deidra Herbert, a WHS teacher of English, journalism and broadcasting/studio/television production, has been with Whitehall-Coplay School District for 11 years. Prior to that, she taught in western Maryland for 12 years.

As early as the 1960s, there has been The Zephyr newspaper at the high school. Herbert’s first Zephyr newspaper was produced in 2007. At that time, the class had just two Apple computers.

“Only two people could do the designing, and we actually literally cut and pasted and sent it, so from the time that I’ve started to now, we now email everything to [Easton Publishing], and we do all the design work. We’ve taken on more and more of the publishing end of it,” Herbert said.

The students in Herbert’s journalism class, sophomores through seniors, learn the entire process of writing - including the different types of articles - editing and layout production.

When creating articles for a newspaper edition, students present an idea to Herbert, and the class talks about each article idea.

“They come up with everything,” Herbert said.

Some of the recent articles included topics such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, President Donald Trump’s travel ban, the Oscars, Where Are They Now? - a piece about a graduate and what he or she is up to lately - artwork in the school hallways, a wikiHow help section, Humans of Whitehall - a take on Humans of New York - club activities, sports and planning for prom.

The Zephyr has eight page editors, two managing editors, an editor-in-chief and staff writers who “really try to put out six (newspapers).”

“We try to put one out a month,” Herbert said.

Students take their own photos to accompany the articles.

“When [the newspaper] comes out, we put it on a cart and go out to every classroom, and we give them enough for every student to get one. And then we have some left over.”

About 1,400 copies are published for distribution.

One of Herbert’s goals for the future is increased circulation.

“With a little organization, it would be cool if people wanted a subscription. I could mail it to them. I would do something like that,” she said.

Herbert said she is really proud of her students - who are sometimes unappreciated, she said - and all they accomplished when an edition is printed.

“It’s not just a paper that’s done by the kids; it’s a paper about the kids, and I think we do kind of amazing things here,” Herbert said. “I’m proud of it.”