Questions
Does the start of a new school year always lead to rolling out new procedures, ideas or policies?Should it?
By John Bowen, MJE
Maybe, for instance, a new staff and school year might be an excellent time to revisit publication Mission Statements, Editorial Policy, your Ethical Guidelines and the procedures to carry out quality student media leadership made possible by journalistic responsibility?
Focus on an important news story reported as school starts.
Banning many things or ideas in schools is not new. Banning cell phones during the school day has a long and varied history of differing positions:
• Cell phones disrupted the school day.
• Cell phones encouraged cheating.
• Cell phones changed opinions when communities learned they could be useful.
• Cell phones could better alert parents if violence occurred at school.
• Cell phones, and their offspring, Smartphones, enabled students to cheat, to disrupt and to steal, but in newer ways.
Flashback: Lessons on avoiding sloppy reporting
