Stevenson HS journalists forced to print changed paper
Illinois: Stevenson HS student journalists forced to print administratively-changed paper Wednesday.
Read MoreFighting scholastic media censorship must start locally
They just keep on coming.
Stevenson High. Timberland High. Stow-Munroe Falls High. Boonville High and others too numerous to list.
And those are just some we know about.
But there are countless others — the smaller, lesser known stories you hear about at workshops like the recent JEA/NSAP convention in DC.
• Like the Virginia student journalist who needed suggestions on how to work with a principal about prior review because the principal offered no justification for censoring topics administrators considered negative to the school.
• Like the Michigan school who wanted guidelines on how to report controversial issues so they could remain review-free.
• Like the student who would not say what state she was from, just that she was from the Bible Belt. She sought help on how to report on her principal being “under persecution” because of discussion of Christian issues
• Like the South Carolina student journalist trying to understand why her conservative community was upset about the reporting on a pregnant teen.
Each of these instances deserves our attention as much as the larger, more publicized instances.
To help journalism teachers and advisers, we need to know when to offer our help and why. It is much harder to assist these students, advisers and parents if we don’t know the issues and the ways we can help.
If your student media face censorship or prior review, please let us know so we can act to support in ways you feel best for your situation.
Here are some ways:
• Report the issue to the Student Press Law Center .
• Complete a censorship report by going to The Center for Scholastic Journalism to report censorship or prior review, and fill out the forms.
• If the adviser is a member of JEA, activate the organization’s Adviser Assistance Program by contacting your state JEA representative, your regional director or JEA headquarters. You can get that information from the JEA Web site.
• Leave a comment on this blog. A member of JEA’s press rights commission or members of the other commissions (certification, curriculum, multi-cultural or middle school) will get back to you.
Help us know who needs assistance and attention from the most well-known to the smallest issue.
Read MoreHe said, she said, they said…
Sometimes it’s hard to know whom to believe.
You hear a colleague talk about her students making all the content decisions, and then you have her kids in a workshop….and that’s not the way they tell it. You think you know who did all the work on that fantastic layout….and then someone tells you what went on behind the scenes. Or horror stories circulate about some nasty administrator….and then you learn what he says the student journalists did or didn’t do.
That said, let’s be clear this has NOTHING to do with any specific situation, past or present. It’s an accumulation of situations over the years, and it isn’t aimed at anyone or anything.
This is simply a reminder that just about every story has more than one side. In fact, it may have lots and lots of sides, and hearing only one of them may not be enough. Don’t jump to conclusions. The first version you get may not be the closest to reality, and it may take hearing a variety of viewpoints, weighing them carefully, before you can reach your own conclusion.
After all, good journalists want balanced information. They need to know what he said and she said and they said in an attempt to find the truth.
Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE
Read MoreStevenson High School
What’s happening at Stevenson High School reminds me a lot of what happened at Hazelwood East High School in the 1980s. Controversial stories like the ones in the most recent issue of the Statesman at Stevenson, including one on teen pregnancy, also appeared in the Spectrum at Hazelwood East in 1983.
Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said in a quote in the Chicago Tribune today that the stories in the Statesman were “balanced, responsible and mild.” So were the stories in the Spectrum.
It’s frightening to think that almost 28 years after the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision that we have made little progress in educating administrators to realize there is nothing educationally sound about censoring “balanced, responsible and mild” content in scholastic publications.
School newspapers across the country in the 1970s and prior to the Hazelwood case in the 1980s covered sensitive and controversial issues in a responsible manner. The Kirkwood Call, the newspaper I advised, had reported on all the topics the Spectrum covered prior to 1983 without any censorship threat from the administration. I realized I was blessed to work with great administrators during my teaching career.
Now, however,there are advisers and students in a lot of states who shy away from covering anything controversial because of fear of administrators cracking down. At Stevenson High School, administrators decided to stop publication of today’s issue when the students on the newspaper staff decided to leave a blank space where a story on teenage drinking was supposed to go. The writer of the story had quoted two students anonymously. Administrators apparently wanted to know who the students were, but the paper’s staff decided to go with a blank space rather than reveal its sources.
We must, as JEA members, come up with ways to educate administrators on the rights of students. Even in states that have passed laws to override the Hazelwood decision, censorship is still happening.
Maybe it’s time we asked all former recipients of JEA’s Administrator of the Year award to band together and help us win the battle against censorship. When it’s happening with publications that have been by policy or practice operating as public forums, then it’s obvious we need to step up our efforts to educate administrators.
Most student publications I see are practicing responsible journalism. They’re not causing a disruption of the educational processes with what they print, and they’re not printing articles that would cause legal problems. It’s time to eliminate administrative censorship when articles are “balanced, responsible and mild.”
If you have ideas as to steps JEA might take to solve this problem, contact John Bowen, JEA’s Student Press Rights Commission chair. Let’s work together to win this battle.
Read MoreCourage in journalism
As Frank LoMonte, director of the Student Press Law Center, was announcing the Courage in Journalism Award to two young men from Pennsylvania, I realized that they stood there because their adviser had taught them well about the First Amendment. These young men, Henry Rome (Journalism Education Association’s national Student Journalist of the Year for 2009 and former editor of The Spoke) and Seth Zweifler, current editor of The Spoke, at Conestoga High School (Berwyn, Pa.), learned the lesson.
When their school board began discussions regarding new policies for censorship of the student publication, the team geared up to educate the school board on what their teacher, Susan Houseman, had taught them. They said ‘no’ to censorship of their national award winning publication that is both a print and online publication. Neither were they willing to relinquish their First Amendment Rights at the school house gate, because Tinker v. Des Moines stated they did not shed them at the gate.
After the awards ceremony, Zweifler commented that journalist was the most important word when asked what he would tell student journalists who are being censored. What a refreshing comment to hear – students who are journalists – that is really why the JEA SPRC exists. We support young journalists and advisers in their quest for truth and in their support of First Amendment rights for students.
If you would like to see more of what Rome and Zweifler accomplished in their five months mission this past year, go to their website: http://www.friendsofthespoke.org This site is the perfect example of how student journalists can stand up to censorship of student publications by educating school board members, who later abandoned the idea. A wealth of information and strategies for meeting the challenge of censorship is available on this site – all written by student journalists.
Bravo, Henry and Seth for being First Amendment warriors! Thank you Frank LoMonte for leading the charge!
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