Former actor continues dialogue on Parkland’s impact
Reed Alexander after a screening of the “After Parkland” documentary.
Photo courtesy of Leah DeHaemer
If you grew up in America during the 2000s, you have likely heard of Reed Alexander. He graced television screens across the country as Nevel Papperman, the antagonist in the hit television series “iCarly,” which aired new episodes on Nickelodeon from 2007 through 2012. However, Alexander is so much more than just his uppity teen sitcom character.
Alexander enrolled at New York University (NYU) in 2013 as a journalism major. While studying at NYU, Alexander became a radio contributor for BBC News from July 2014 to June 2016. After graduating with his bachelor’s in media studies and broadcast journalism in 2017, Alexander moved to Hong Kong to be an international reporter for CNN. He later went on to work at Dow Jones & Co. and has since returned to school this academic year to get his master’s in journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University.
Alexander’s professional work is not limited to journalism either. As author of the book “KewlBites: 100 Nutritious, Delicious & Family-Friendly Dishes,” Alexander is a strong advocate of healthy living, diet and lifestyle. He became an ambassador for the Alliance for a Healthier Generation in 2010, which works to battle childhood obesity across America.
“I knew when I was about 16 that I wanted to get out of the entertainment industry eventually,” Alexander said. “I stayed in it because obviously [“iCarly”] was still going, and it was a lot of fun and a big part of my childhood, but I had other ambitions.”
Alexander recalls always being around journalists and politics growing up. His travels resulted in an interest in international affairs. He loved the news: “[I was] always around journalists, as a result of my interest in food ... or on ‘The Today Show’ a lot, so [I was] around broadcast journalists. And I thought, you know, they have the best jobs in the world, because they’re exposed to everything.”
Across his journalistic career, Alexander has covered a story in practically every category under the sun. He has reported on education and school segregation in Brooklyn and the Olympic Games in South Korea, spoken to migrant workers that fell victim to sexual harassment by their bosses and covered the triumph of the first woman ever to compete in the Miss USA pageant with down syndrome.
Currently, Alexander’s largest project stems out of a place that hits very close to home for him, both figuratively and literally. Alexander is currently working on a long-form investigation into Parkland, Florida, centering the timing of his work around the two-year anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, which occurred on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. Alexander was working as a features reporter at the Wall Street Journal Digital Network at the time.
“I will never forget first seeing that the news broke, and just a real feeling of fear that I would know people from that community, because I’m from a community quite close by,” he explained. Alexander is from Boca Raton, Florida.
Part of what drew Alexander to this story was that sense of geographic closeness, but it also appealed greatly to his interest in mental health and trauma recovery. Alexander has built part of his career reporting on mental illness and mental health issues, seeking to answer the question, “How does a community come back after something like this?”
As a part of his investigation, Alexander has gone into homes and classrooms in an attempt to tell what he describes as the unseen heroism of the teachers in Parkland. He reports that about 60% of his investigative story is comprised of accounts regarding how teachers have now become a beacon of strength for students and someone that they go to for support in times of crisis.
“Which raises a lot of questions about how we train teachers to be trauma-informed,” Alexander said. “Should we be doing certifications for teachers, so that they can be providing the kind of strength they’re providing?”
Alexander also reports uncovering a significant amount of never-before-seen data on how many teachers have left Stoneman Douglas High School since the shooting. With this information, Alexander is attempting to quantify the impact of the trauma that teachers have felt, as well as make sure that the school district is held accountable for supporting the teachers and making sure that they have access to the resources that they need.
“I hope that [my investigation] sparks a discussion around the conclusions that I’ve found and uncovered. And more broadly, a real discourse around education policy in our country and how we deal with these teachers, and what we should be doing for them.” Alexander said. “What is a teacher, right? Is it an educator, is it a social worker, is it the person you go to after a shooting? Do they need to be armed to protect students? What is a teacher anymore?”
Alexander explained that he believes his role as a journalist is to spark a discussion. He wants people to continue speaking about it and working with one another to find solutions through compromise.
“The Parkland story ... is not my story either, and I would never dare to make it mine. It’s theirs and it’s terrible,” Alexander said. “But in some regard, it’s like the whole country’s, you know? Because it absolutely changed the country in terms of really appreciating what young people can do when they speak up and speak out. And it’s very inspiring stuff.”
