These were five of the Bullard High School Panther Post staff members who represented the newspaper at the convention in Austin, including (l to r), Sarah Grace French, Teja King, Allie Wade, Ciera Weston and Sharleen Smith. (Courtesy Photo) The Bullard High School Panther Post newspaper staff was recently presented with an Award of Distinguished Merit from the Interscholastic League Press Association. The honor was based on issues of this year’s newspaper which were submitted for a critique and rating.

The Distinguished Merit award is the highest of three ratings. Last year’s staff received the award of Achievement, which is the second highest rating. This is only the second year the Panther Post has been critiqued by the ILPC.

Four Individual Achievement Awards were also presented April 10-11 at the ILPC Convention in Austin. Junior Ciera Weston won an honorable mention for a sports feature, and junior Kaitlyn Aho received an honorable mention for her comic. Another honorable mention went to sophomore Sarah Grace French for feature writing. The team of Regan du Preez, Sharleen Smith and Sarah Grace French placed second in headline writing.