---

WRENTHAM - Something positive has finally come out of state Sen. Scott Brown's controversial appearance last month at King Philip Regional High School.

Student journalists at the school won a second-place award from the Associated Press for their coverage of the fallout from an obscenity-laced talk the senator made at the school.

Seniors Kristina Carucci, Lauren Doughty, and Steve Small will be honored by Associated Press tonight.

They produced a seven-minute report on the school television channel on the topic.

The report included several interviews with students and teachers involved in the incident. The students said they tried to interview Brown, but he declined, so they used quotes by Brown from other sources to give his side of the story.

Brown spoke to an assembly at the school last month on gay marriage.

During his talk, he read out loud obscene comments a few students had posted about him on the Internet.

He named the students who posted the comments.

His language led to complaints from school officials, but many residents rose to his defense, saying he was standing up to students engaged in cyber bullying.

Television production teacher Jodi Greenleaf said she was proud of her students because it was the most complicated story they had ever done.

"I think they did a fine job of putting together a complex puzzle. There were a lot of pieces and decisions to be made," she said.

Greenleaf said emotions were running high at the school after Brown's appearance and the student journalists had to distance themselves from their feelings to do an objective story.

Carucci and Small were at the assembly when Brown spoke.

Work was exciting The students said the work was exciting because they had never had the opportunity to cover a high-profile, breaking, news story in their school before. "It was very exciting. Getting an award from Associated Press is an honor," Carucci said.

Carucci did a lot of the reporting and all of the writing for the story.

Small - who did the production work - said the team was able to get students from the assembly to come to the video room and record their feelings about what had happened.

Doughty - the on-air reporter - said the incident was the talk of the school, and the students wanted to tackle the story immediately.

"It was really a big deal when it first happened, and we really got involved," she said.

The students said they more often do stories about lunch lines and up-coming school events

This was a chance to get experience in hard news.

"It was a great opportunity to try their hand at this type of story," Greenleaf said.

Winning an award for their work made the experience all the more rewarding.

"It's a great honor, and we were glad people appreciated our work," Doughty said.

JIM HAND covers politics for The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0399 or at jhand@thesunchronicle.com.