Welcome back – here’s a look
at what to expect in the coming weeks
As we all head back to school, look for some new content in the next week:
• An article focusing who who owns scholastic media content and choices to establish best approach for students
• An article discussing points of questions involving yearbook ethics
• A first look at a Policy Package to will help staffs decide what they want as the best editorial policy, ethical guidelines and staff manual
• Continued access to our ongoing columns on journalism pedagogy, FOIA, broadcast legal and ethical issues, news literacy and more Making a Difference reporting
• Our annual Constitution Day lessons and activities
• In the meantime, check out these major points from the press rights commission:
• Takedown demands guidelines
• The Panic Button means of reporting censorship
• Our Press Rights Minute
• JEA’s position prior review
• JEA’s existing model editorial policy and support
• Online, photo and yearbook ethical statements
• First Amendment Press Freedom Award application
• A teacher’s kit for curing Hazelwood
• Our Foundations series for scholastic journalism
Something you would like us to report? Let us know.
Read MoreIn case you missed Mary Beth Tinker
students provide solid coverage
Editor’s note: The following is the introduction to Mary Beth Tinker at Whitney High School in Rocklin, Calif. It is used here with permission in an effort to reach as many people as possible.
Journalism students at Whitney also published Storify coverage of the Tinker Tour here. Consider using Storify as another way to report events. News coverage can be read here and photo gallery coverage here .
The Tinker Tour also stopped April 2 at Monta Vista High School, and included a panel discussion with Tinker, Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center and Nick Ferentinos, retired adviser whose students won a post-Hazelwood censorship battle. Two Monta Vista students who successfully defied a subpoena earlier this year using the California shield laws also spoke.
Tomorrow, April 3, journalism students will live stream the Tinker Tour assembly from Convent of the Sacred Heart HS in San Francisco at 10:45 PDT. At the end, student journalists will take questions hashtagged #TinkerTourSF via Twitter.
Building a climate of trust can ease prior review
The newspaper staff of a small school sought me out at a national journalism conference a few years ago. Despite an informal of publishing with just the consultation of the adviser, the school’s principal now wanted to review the paper before it went to bed.
Although I didn’t agree with the principal’s decision, I knew why she put the new policy in place. I had already heard the story through the journalism teachers’ grapevine, but I had the students tell me their version.
“She said she doesn’t trust us any more.”
Fifth in a series
There was a trail of bad decisions on the part of the staff. The editors knew the package they were creating was around a hot-button issue (It doesn’t matter if it was about student drinking, smoking pot or engaging in unsafe sex — it’s all the same to some adults.), but instead of writing a fact-checked, balanced story, the editors decided to deliberately skew the student poll to make student engagement worse in the activity look worse than it actually was.
In large graphs. On the front page. Above the fold.
Their reasoning: “We knew there was a problem, and we wanted to get the word out. It seemed like a good idea.”
The staff broke some of the cardinal rules of journalism — what I call the ABCs; Be Accurate, Be Balanced, Be Clear.
In breaking those rules, the editors didn’t just break their trust with their principal but with their readers. Every story now looked suspect. Was the author “just trying to get a point across,” or was he accurately telling the truth in a balanced manner?
There was little balm I could offer the staff. Loss of trust is a big wound, and it takes time to heal. The staff would have to be extra diligent in its coverage from this time forward. All staffers wouldn’t just have to get their facts straight, but their spelling, grammar and syntax would have to be flawless.
I encouraged the staff to continue to take on important stories and show it had the skills and the good judgment to cover hard stories responsibly. The goal would be to these stories to rebuild trust with the administration and readers.
Then in six months, they could go back to the principal and show her proof that the staff was deserving of trust. If that didn’t work, then they should try it again in a year, in 18 months — as long as it took.
“Make it your mission,” I said. “Provide responsible journalism with no prior review. Be prepared that it may take time, but make it your legacy — even if it doesn’t happen this year.”
Should students be allowed to make mistakes? Certainly. Does the coach go on the field with a football player during the game to “make sure” he doesn’t drop the ball? Never. But the fact is, private schools and schools in Hazelwood states face a higher scrutiny.
With a strong foundation of trust and thoughtful storytelling, staffs and administrators can build a win-win policy. Together.
~~~~~~~~~~~
It doesn’t matter if you’re attending a private or religious school or one in a Hazelwood state — you can have a publication with high-quality journalism that speaks to your students. In a future post, we’ll talk about strategies you can use when your principal or board digs in its heels in because it wants to “protect” the community.
Quill and Scroll joins groups
in opposing high school censorship
by John Bowen
Quill and Scroll’s Board of Trustees became the latest scholastic media group May 24 as it unanimously endorsed the Journalism Education Association and Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication resolution on high school journalism censorship.
Quill and Scroll’s Proposed Resolution reads:
Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists joins with the Journalism Education Association (JEA) and the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) in stating that no legitimate pedagogical purpose is served by the censorship of student journalism on the grounds that it reflects unflatteringly on school policies and programs, that it candidly discusses sensitive social and political issues, or that it voices opinions challenging to majority views on matters of public concern. The censorship of such speech, or the punishment of media advisers based on that speech, is detrimental to effective learning and teaching, and it cannot be justified by reference to “pedagogical concerns.”
Be it further resolved that:
Quill and Scroll joins JEA and AEJMC in declaring that the Hazelwood level of control over student journalistic speech is clearly incompatible with the effective teaching of journalistic skills, values and practices, and that institutions of secondary and postsecondary education should renounce reliance on Hazelwood as a source of authority for the governance of student and educator expression.
Quill and Scroll joins the Kettle Moraine Press Association, the Ohio Scholastic Media Association, Kent State University’s Center for Scholastic Journalism and Michigan Interscholastic Press Association in endorsing the statement.
JEA and the Student Press Law Center urge state and regional journalism organizations to join them in making a national statement that nothing educational or legitimate comes from censorship stemming from the 1988 U. S. Supreme Court’s Hazelwood decision.
Read MoreJoin the resolution
by John Bowen
The Journalism Education Association and the Student Press Law Center urge state and regional journalism organizations to make a national statement that nothing educational or legitimate comes from censorship stemming from the 1988 U. S. Supreme Court’s Hazelwood decision.
JEA’s board of directors voted unanimously to endorse a resolution by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication that said, in part, “the Hazelwood level of control over student journalistic speech is clearly incompatible with the effective teaching of journalistic skills, values and practices, and that institutions of secondary and postsecondary education should forswear reliance on Hazelwood as a source of authority for the governance of student and educator expression.”
JEA’s resolution differed slightly from the AEJMC model as it focused more directly on scholastic journalism.
“This resolution is important for two reasons,” JEA president Mark Newton said. “Anytime we can partner with our college colleagues in AEJMC it shows incredible solidarity. And, most importantly, as the leading scholastic journalism education group, we must stand tall and scream at injustice. Make no mistake, the Hazelwood Supreme Court decision and its subsequent interpretations are an injustice to education, students, advisers and the First Amendment.”
The pendulum simply has swung too far toward heavy-handed school control following 25 years of failed experimentation with the Hazelwood level of censorship authority, SPLC Executive Director Frank LoMonte said.
“Hazelwood has proven itself to be legally unsound, educationally counterproductive, and as a practical matter entirely unnecessary,” LoMonte said, “since schools from California to Massachusetts have functioned just fine for decades without it.”
JEA’s resolution states, in part, “No legitimate pedagogical purpose is served by the censorship of student journalism on the grounds that it reflects unflatteringly on school policies and programs, that it candidly discusses sensitive social and political issues, or that it voices opinions challenging to majority views on matters of public concern. The censorship of such speech, or the punishment of media advisers based on that speech, is detrimental to effective learning and teaching, and it cannot be justified by reference to “pedagogical concerns.”
“The educators who know journalism best are united in their conviction school censorship authority should never be used to discourage students from engaging on the social and political issues that concern them, including issues involving the quality of their own educational experience,” LoMonte said. “That is a message that the courts cannot ignore when the next Hazelwood censorship case invariably arises. What constitutes a “legitimate pedagogical concern” that justifies school censorship should be decided be educators, not school attorneys, and the JEA resolution sends the unmistakable message that censoring for purposes of P.R. image control is educationally indefensible.”
What you can do
Here’s what JEA and its Scholastic Press Rights Commission would like you to do:
• Study the AEJMC and JEA resolutions attached to this packet
• Ask questions as needed by emailing jabowen@kent.edu
• Prepare a statement showing your organization’s endorsement of JEA’s resolution and publish it
• Notify JEA and the SPRC of your endorsement, and provide us with a copy of the resolution
The first endorsement is already in: the Kettle Moraine Press Association. The Ohio Scholastic Media Association and the Center for Scholastic Journalism endorsed during the day, April 22.
“Our goal is to support journalism advisers and students with the full voice of the Kettle Moraine Press Association,” their resolution states in part. “In doing so, the KEMPA Board of Directors unanimously endorses the JEA Resolution: Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier anniversary/First Amendment and censorship authority and its position that the censorship of speech which candidly discusses social and political issues in school publications and the punishment of media advisers based on that exercise of free speech is detrimental to effective learning and teaching.”
JEA’s and the Scholastic Press Rights Comission’s goal is simple: We want to have all 50 states make a statement that can be cited by courts as consensus of journalism educators as to what is a legitimate educational reason for censorship – not the random fears Hazelwood generates.
Although JEA has set no deadline for state endorsements, SPRC chair John Bowen urged states to act as quickly as possible.
“The sooner we can point to agreement with these statements,” Bowen said, “the more likelihood we have of making a usable statement for courts and others. Having this in hand before school begins in August would be a real plus.”
Attached materials:
• AEJMC Resolution can be found at http://www.aejmc.org/home/2013/04/resolution-one-2013/
• JEA Resolution attached and available here.
Read More