Censorship lesson and case study: Fond du Lac
Censorship Case Study
by Jeff Kocur
Description
A case study on the Fond du Lac High School Cardinal Column’s censorship by administration after the publishing of an article on a rape culture at the school. The study involves censorship of Fond du Lac High School’s by administration after the publishing of an article on a rape culture at the school. Students examine the application of the First Amendment to high school students and evaluate and hypothesize what they might do if faced with a similar situation.
Objectives
• Students will examine the application of the First Amendment to high school students
• Students will discuss the censorship of a high school publication.
• Students will evaluate and hypothesize what they would do if they were in a similar situation.
Common Core State Standards
•Informational text; Integration of knowledge and ideas
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
• Informational text; Integration of knowledge and ideas
Delineate and evaluate the reasoning in seminal U.S. texts, including the application of constitutional principlesand use of legal reasoning (e.g., in U.S. Supreme Court majority opinions and dissents) and the premises, purposes, and arguments in works of public advocacy (e.g., The Federalist, presidential addresses).
Length
100 minutes (Two 50-minute classes)
Materials / resources
• Handout 1
• Handout 2
• Rape Culture Coverage
For more information about the situation:
• Article on the issue
• Student Press Law Center with links to story
• Article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Lesson step-by-step
Day One:
1. Background — 3 minutes
Teacher should either talk through or project the following:
Summation of issue:
Students at the Cardinal Columns, the student run newspaper at Fond Du Lac High School in Fond Du Lac, Wisc., were compelled to write a piece in the February issue about a rape culture at their school. The Editor-in-Chief, Tanvi Kumar told the Student Press Law Center the following.
“We are so saturated in a society that tolerates and even condones objectification of women and sexualizes them to be less than human beings,” Kumar said. “I think a lot of that … contributes to rape jokes and rape culture, and it’s not something that I could see going under the radar anymore.”
After the article was published, the principal, Jon Wiltzius, enacted a school board policy on the books, but not in practice, that would require the students to submit their paper to him prior to publication. He censored a photo on the cover of the next issue that was critical of the new policy.
2. Opening question — 2 minutes
Ask the students “What if this happened at your school?”
Teacher note: A healthy, mutual understanding of the First Amendment between your staff and your administrator would likely make this a non-issue, but not all schools are that lucky. You may want to share the First Amendment with the students as well.
3. Reading the article — 25 minutes
Teacher should pass out the article. Students should read the coverage in its entirety.
4. Pair work — 15 minutes
Teacher should pass out “Handout 1.” Students could work on the sheet in pairs.
5. Homework
If students have not finished the handout, ask them to do it for homework.
Day 2
1. Recap — 5 minutes
Ask students to “remind you” of what they read about the day before.
2. Large group discussion — 15 minutes
Teacher should ask each group to report their answers. Teacher should facilitate the discussion.
3. Small group work — 15 minutes
Ask each pair to partner with another pair. Pass out “Handout 2.” Students should answer the questions from the sheet.
4. Large group discussion — 15 minutes
Again, teacher should ask each group to report their answers. Teacher should facilitate the discussion.
Differentiation
If students would like more information on the Fond du Lac censorship, they should access the articles listed in the resources section.
Getting your editorial policy the right way
by Candace Perkins Bowen, MJE
Part 1 of a 2-part blog on teacher plagiarism and copyright issues
Teachers can be the world’s worst thieves without ever meaning to be.
We’ve all done it — sometimes out of panicked need, sometimes out of ignorance, sometimes because we think our classroom is some sort of copyright-free zone.
So just what CAN teachers use that others have created? Just what is fair use in the classroom? What may be legal but not exactly ethical for us to use? This is the first of a two-part series concerning OUR use of others’ creative work.
Read MoreNoteworthy this week in support of student expression
With Constitution Day (Sept. 17) and its Congressional mandate to teach a lesson on constitutional issues, the press rights commission would like to highlight a couple of points:
• NCTE released a statement, NCTE Beliefs about Students’ Right to Write, that could lead to lessons and discussion.
• Fond du Lac High School in Wisconsin received new guidelines for their Cardinal Columns that allow students, in consultation with the adviser, to decide content without prior review. For more information and how it came about, check jeasprc.org in the next several weeks.
• Later this week, check this blog for the JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission Constitution Day teaching lessons and activities. Until then, you can find previous lessons here. We designed our Constitution Day lesson plans to help students celebrate the Constitution and Bill of Rights, as mandated by Congress. Legislation requires schools to offer lessons on the Constitution and how it affects all Americans. Our lesson plans emphasize the First Amendment and particularly the freedoms of speech and the press.
With Constitution Day close, you might want to work our lessons when released Friday into that timeframe. One post will win a $25 gift certificate for the JEA bookstore. It’s easy to enter — just use the #CD2014. The winner will be chosen at random. In order to enter, post either students learning or celebrating Constitution Day by at 9:17 p.m Sept. 17. The winning post will be announced on the listserv.
Read More
Fond du Lac gets new policy,
content in hands of students, adviser
Students at Wisconsin’s Fond du Lac High have a new editorial policy this fall after a spring and summer of working to reach compromise that would end prior review and restraint.
Reporter Sharon Roznik wrote in the local fdlreporter the board of education would support guidelines that give the “final decision-making process for publication ‘lies with the editors-in-chief and the editorial board in consultation with the faculty adviser.'”
Roznik and Cardinal Columns adviser Matt Smith report that Smith “has the authority” to refuse publication if material is libelous or obscene or can be called unprotected speech.
Roznik quotes Smith as appreciative of the board working with him and students obtain a solution.
“The students and I will meet regularly with the principal and/or district staff to discuss how things are going and continue building understanding about best practices for scholastic journalism as well as appreciation for how well our students operate and how much they deserve our trust and support. ” Smith wrote in an email earlier this month.”
Smith, wrote Roznik, said the best thing for the district in the long run is to make the Cardinal Columns a public forum for student expression.
To see the new policy guidelines, go here.
For background on the issue, go here, here and here.
Read More
The R-Word and the WaPo
by Matt Schott August 22, the Washington Post editorial board decided to no longer use the term Redskins in its editorials (I believe it will live on in the sports and news sections).
This is a decision that seems to be pretty roundly lauded, particularly by Native American groups who’ve been fighting for this change for years. And it is a decision to be lauded. Continuing to use a racial epithet as a team name is unacceptable.
However, let’s not get hurt ourselves patting the WaPo editorial board on the back for its decisions. While it is, by far, the most prominent editorial board to refuse to do this (and likely one of the most influential), it is not the first.
No, for that, you would need to travel to Pennsylvania.
Specifically, to Neshaminy High School.
Even more specifically, you’d need to visit with the student editors of The Playwickian, Neshaminy’s student newspaper. [pullquote]While it is, by far, the most prominent editorial board to refuse to do this (and likely one of the most influential), it is not the first. No, for that, you would need to travel to Pennsylvania. Specifically, to Neshaminy High School.[/pullquote]
In a decision that raised the ire of students, their principal and their school board, the editorial board of The Playwickian decided to no longer use the term Redskins (which is the school mascot) more than a year ago. A year.
And for that past year, they’ve been locked in battles with those aforementioned groups, fighting the principal who overturned their ban. The editorial board continued to defy its principal, threatening legal action if the school district continued fighting the ban.
The students’ mettle was tested when a student submitted a letter to the editor using the word, disagreeing with the editorial board’s decision. The editors chose to run it with the word Redskins changed to R——-.
Administrators ordered it to run unedited. The editorial board pulled it, choosing to run white space instead. The timing from the WaPo dovetails nicely with these students’ fight.
While I’d imagine this was announced because the NFL season kicking off in early September, this is also the time of year where students head back to school.
It would be great, as the student editors at Neshaminy headed back to their student newsroom – if the Washington Post, one of the vanguards of American journalism in the last 50 years – would provide a tip of the hat to these student journalists who showed them where the path of right was on this issue.
Perhaps the Post could send a letter to the students on staff, offer some advice or something of that sort. So often in the scholastic journalism classroom, it is students who look to the professionals for ideas and inspiration.
In this case, it’s the professionals who stand on the shoulders of giants. They should acknowledge this.
Read MoreUpdates on scholastic issues across the nation
–ajc.com wrote this piece about the issue of the “R” word.