Talking Points: Starting a discussion between advisers and administrators
to build the case against prior review, restraint
by Lori Keekley
Advisers and administrators should be partners in education, not adversaries.
Advisers must teach principals about the importance of journalism and its relevance to today’s curriculum as well as enlighten them about the pitfalls of prior review and restraint.
We’ve created these Talking Points, based in part on Quill & Scroll’s new version of The Principal’s Guide to Scholastic Journalism (available in print from Quill and Scroll) to help advisers begin to build their cases for a strong, student-driven journalism program.
Most points are further referenced in the Principal’s Guide, which are the page numbers that appear following the main point. Others have links in which advisers can find more information on the topic, including links to the online version of The Principal’s Guide and materials from JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission.
School censorship costs advisers, students at Illinois student media
by Randy Swikle
Hazelwood stories: Here is a nutshell of Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois., and how Hazelwood diminished Barb Thill’s J-program:
In Illinois, all but four staff members of one of the nation’s most honored student newspapers quit the publication and dropped their journalism class after school officials publicly rebuked student reporters and their adviser, repeatedly censored accurate articles, revoked the “designated forum” status of the paper, adopted a policy of prior review and edited the paper themselves.
The adviser, a nationally recognized teacher, lost her position. (In a year’s time, two replacement advisers also lost their “newspaper adviser” assignments.)
In an editorial, the Chicago Tribune criticized school authorities and praised student journalists for the high quality of their censored work.
Read MoreFunny how the cheerleaders get all the attention
by Mark Goodman
Funny how cheerleaders get all the attention.
It would have been difficult to miss the coverage this past week of the cheer squad at Kountze High School in Southeast Texas and their fight over free expression. From a high school of a little more than 400 students in a town of about 2,100 people, their story made national news.
The story in a nutshell, for those who did miss it: cheerleaders at Kountze emblazoned banners they displayed at football games with religious messages.
Read MoreDon’t let death derail your publication
by Mary Kay Downes
The loss of any student is a tragic event either through sickness, accident or suicide.
Often times staffs are shocked when events such as this occur and frozen into either inaction or precipitous action. They ask, “Do we cover this?” They ask, “How do we cover this?” They ask, “Should we call the parents?”
All of these are questions which can be taken care of by establishing a policy by the editorial board for inclusion in the staff manual having to do with death. We have a policy in our yearbook staff manual and it precludes any type of memorial page.
We include a picture of the deceased student in the senior section of the yearbook the year they would have graduated. It is in a box with year of birth and death. If a faculty member dies, we include a similar box in the faculty section of the current year’s book.
Read MoreTeaching ethics: making it personal
*Editor’s note: This is the first of a series of rotating columns by commission members to appear Wednesdays. Megan Fromm will present best practices for teaching ethics; Jeff Kocur will discuss common problems student leaders and advisers face and how to overcome them; Candace Perkins Bowen will examine journalistic ties to Common Core standards; Mark Goodman will write about current events and impact on law as it affects scholastic media and Marina Hendricks will address ethical issues and online journalism.
by Megan Fromm
I remember vividly the day my high school newspaper adviser called an emergency editor meeting. Editors filed into the office, lunch bags in hand, and waited not-so patiently to hear what the fuss was all about.
Once settled, our adviser informed us that a student group at the high school was waging some rather serious accusations against another student group in the form of a letter to the editor.
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