by Don Corrigan
Seven Kirkwood High School students have shown their stuff making documentaries to raise people’s awareness of critical issues. One of the seven video champs scored especially big in a media competition.
Nora Schroeder won a $1,500 prize and placed second for her piece involving the toll of the atomic age on St. Louis with her documentary, “The Radioactive Waste Crisis: A Hidden Hazard.”
Schroeder’s documentary is proving timely as the U.S. Congress has been deciding this session on how much attention to give to remediating the radioactive waste sites in St. Louis. The hazardous waste has been a source of controversy for decades.
However, the waste received little attention in the years when it was initially dumped at several North County sites and along Coldwater Creek. It’s removal from a chemical plant in north St. Louis and subsequent dispersal was haphazard and careless at best.
Government Cover-Up
Schroeder said research she did on the dawn of the atomic age – and the radioactive waste contamination of north St. Louis County – shocked her. She is even more surprised that few of her classmates seem to know about the contamination issue.
In her documentary, U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, charges that the government lied about dangerous materials processed in St. Louis to make the atomic bomb. Then, officials covered up how neighborhoods were contaminated with dumped radioactive waste.
“My main message is that the President needs to address the issue because the federal government caused the problem,” said Schroeder. “There needs to be more awareness of this problem.
“People need help,” added Schroeder. “If I was diagnosed with cancer because of something like this, I would want there to be some responsibility for what happened.”
Schroeder cites Dawn Chapman of Just Moms St. Louis in her project. Chapman spoke on the radioactive legacy of atomic bomb development, which can be found at sites like Coldwater Creek, near Lambert International Airport, at the West Lake Landfill in the Bridgeton area, and across the Missouri River at Weldon Spring.
The documentary shows the detonation of an atomic weapon. St. Louis moms and their families did not get any kind of warning about the uranium processing done locally or the dumping of waste from making the bomb.
What’s more, so many moms to this day still aren’t getting any warning. Officials went to great lengths to make sure St. Louis was in the dark, and no signs were placed for kids to stay out of contaminated Coldwater Creek.
Schroeder said her effort on the StudentCam 2025 project taught her that making a documentary is hard work. It involves lots of research and tedious work making all the information fit together.
“My mom is a history teacher in the Eureka District. She told me about the atomic waste problem and gave me the idea for the video project,” said Schroeder. “I think I want to study environmental science or engineering when I get to college.”
Schroeder’s atomic documentary was one of more than 1,700 entries from 42 states that C-SPAN received. The most popular topics addressed were climate, environment and land use; education and the cost of college; health care and mental health; gun violence, school safety and firearms; and inflation, taxes, government spending and the economy.
All the winning KHS students are juniors in AP Language and Composition classes. They made documentaries for the StudentCam 2025 contest of C-SPAN, a public affairs television channel that debuted with the advent of cable TV.
The annual StudentCam competition is funded by the C-SPAN Education Foundation. Videos were evaluated by a panel of educators and C-SPAN representatives based on the thoughtful examination of the competition’s theme, quality of expression and inclusion of varying sides on the topic covered.
Kirkwood High School had a record number of winners in the documentary competition. Others recognized for their work are:
• Lillian Driscoll, who won $250 for earning an honorable mention for her documentary, “Equality Printed in the Constitution: Racial Bias in Wrongful Convictions.”
• Kylie Kohl, who won $250 for earning an honorable mention for her documentary, “Nutritional Education.”
• Riley Devers and Evie Deckert, who won a $250 cash prize for earning an honorable mention for their documentary, “Bridging the Divide.”
• Claire Krob, who won $250 for earning an honorable mention for her documentary, “The Injustice in the Mental Health System.”
To view all of the videos, and to learn more about the program, please visit: studentcam.org/studentcam-2025-prize-winners.
Environmental Echo 