DOCUMENTING HISTORY

Jason Whitely reports

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SOUTH DALLAS – At Lincoln High School in South Dallas, television courses are taught every day. In fact, the studio and equipment the Dallas Independent School District campus uses rivals some college programs.

"Three, two, one," announced a cameraman before a practice taping.

"Hi, I'm Tenisha Stribling," began the Lincoln High senior while underneath bright lights in a cold studio.

"Look up every now and then,” advised Tony Boone, Stribling's teacher. “Smile, be passionate about what you're reading."

But it's another subject, not TV, that students are about to get a crash course in.

"This will be great practice before we actually get to D.C.," Boone told students.

As workers prepare the Capitol for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama, the students in South Dallas are cramming to ready themselves to witness an historical moment.

"I'm doing all the work, and getting ready and being more mature,” said Desmond Richardson, a Lincoln High student.

The school is sending seven students from its radio/film/TV program to the January 20 inauguration in Washington, D.C.

"It will probably be the only time in my lifetime to actually do something like this that's actually going down in history," Stribling said.

Lincoln High is the only Dallas Independent School District campus with such an advanced television program. In the 29 years it has been in existence, students rarely got the opportunity to go out of town to cover such an assignment.

Donors bought the students' Southwest Airlines tickets, and several nights at an old Victorian home in D.C.

"It's going to mean the world to them,” Boone said. “A lot of them haven't even been out of the city of Dallas or the state of Texas before."

This will be the first time both Stribling and Richardson have flown in an airplane.

Students plan to return with a half-hour TV documentary to show their classmates and the community.

It’s one of those rare instances when high schoolers will witness history rather than study it in a textbook.

E-mail jwhitely@wfaa.com