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sUMMer 2014
WATCHDOG
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Tracy
Marcello,
CJE,
has a degree
in multimedia
journalism from
Florida Atlantic
University. She is
the marketing and
communication
coordinator for
Odell Brewing
Company in Fort
Collins, Colo.,
and previously
worked as adviser
of two high school
publications —
both of which were
subject to prior
review and prior
restraint. Her
students and their
publications have
been recognized
by FSPA, CHSPA,
JEA and NSPA,
most recently
with a Pacemaker
Finalist
nomination. She
can be reached at
marcello.tracy@
gmail.com.
“Even when journalism is properly
done, it’s going to ruffle some feathers,” he said. “That’s when journalism
is done at its best.”
Still, many principals don’t want to
ruffle even one feather over a studentwritten story. In a survey conducted
among 27 high school journalism
advisers, 37 percent said that their
principal either practiced prior review
or prior restraint of the school’s publication.
Annandale, Va. HS newspaper adviser Alan Weintraut vividly remembers
the one instance in his 20-year teaching career when a principal confronted
his staff, after they had written a story
about an off-campus stabbing involving a student at the school.
“He said, ‘From now on, I want to
see the paper.’ And I said, ‘That’s not
my policy and that’s not my students’
policy.’”
Since then, Weintraut’s students
have never been subject to prior
review by an administrator, though
he reads all of their stories before
publication.
“[Principals] can control the newspaper the day [they] go down to the
sidelines and call plays,” he said.
Neshaminy students
challenge tradition
E
ditors of Neshaminy HS’s student newspaper, The
Playwickian, can no longer ban the use of “Redskin” —
the school’s mascot nickname — in editorials or letters to
the editor.
Neshaminy School Board members voted 8-1 June 26 on
what the administration calls a compromise policy which allows student editors to
remove the word from news stories, but not opinion pieces.
Playwickian managing editor Jack Haines said he also objects to policy points
that allow the principal to censor the paper for “any reasonable reason” and
another that prevents the paper from endorsing a political candidate.
“It essentially boils down to an administrator being able to censor for any reason
he deems reasonable,” Haines said.
Editors at the school located in Langhorn, Pa., voted last October to ban the
use of the mascot’s name because they said “Redskin” is a racial slur and thus
offensive to Native Americans.
Following student editors’ ban of the controversial word, editorial boards of the
Bucks County Courier Times and its sister papers, The Intelligencer and Burlington
County Times, approved a similar policy. On June 18, the Trademark Trial and
Appeal Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office voted to cancel the NFL’s
Washington Redskins trademarks, considering them “disparaging to Native
Americans.”
When a student wrote an opinion piece disagreeing with the editors’ policy, the
newspaper staff agreed to publish it, but would only run the offending word as
“R_______,” just as their professional counterparts do with other racially charged
words.
“Astonishingly, that wasn’t good enough for the school administration, which
suggested not using the full word violated the complaining student’s First
Amendment rights,” writes Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center.
“Does that mean all epithets are fair game? And what about a letter questioning the
administration’s competence? Is that also a must-run?”
In early June, students published their last edition of the school year without
prior approval in a dispute over a letter written by the son of a school board
member using the nickname. Instead of publishing the letter with the nickname as
they were told to do by the principal, they printed an editor’s note explaining their
position why they could not run the letter.
The next week, the board introduced the revised policy and Principal Robert
McGee told Playwickian adviser Tara Huber to change the passwords on the
newspaper’s social media accounts and website.
Instead, Huber decided to delete the Facebook and Twitter accounts, McGee
said.
Matt Schafer, the students’ attorney, said he thought the district violated the
students’ First Amendment rights with the ultimatum, and also with a confiscation
of a disputed number of the newspapers after they were printed.
“Student editors are as free as other editors to report and editorialize the news,”
he said.
“We’re definitely not just going to sit back and let this happen,” co-editor-in-chief
Gillian McGoldrick said after the meeting. “There are so many things that are
wrong with this.”
McGoldrick, Schafer and the other editors said they would have to discuss their
next step now that the policy has passed.
Ken Paulson’s commentary, “Young Americans have free-speech rights, too,”
appears at www.firstamendmentcenter.org.
Michael Macagnone of the Bucks County Courier Times (Pa.) did the original
reporting on the school board vote. Content reprinted with his permission.
sion statement charges us with creating,” McHale said. “I believe there is
nowhere else in the school where this
happens.”
Advisers like McHale continue to
fight for the rights of their students in
an effort to breed responsible, ethical
and fact-seeking journalists — the
kind that aren’t afraid of the truth.
And while some won’t go to the same
lengths as McHale, most still promote
controversial writing and all that it
entails.
Adviser’s role
Arizona Daily Star editorial writer and
columnist Sarah Gassen emphasized
the role of advisers during a presentation at the Reynolds Journalism
Institute (RJI) at the Walter Cronkite
School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University
June 19.
“ ]