I'm excited to work with an entirely new group of journalism students this fall. New faces, means fresh ideas and hopefully a fresh start. After reading through and attending our online training modules, I am convinced that our staff can do A LOT to improve and to increase readership. One setback that will have a big impact on our ability to grow however, is prior restraint.
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| CC image courtesy of Tyler Menezes on Flickr |
Case in point, a student named Madison wrote a brilliant piece on Planned Parenthood that would have been very uplifting and informative to a lot of struggling females in our student body. The article was pulled by our administrator for it's failure to uphold district policy. Though detail was not provided on the policy, it was implied that our district and most districts in the state have an 'abstinence only' policy or particular FERPA guidelines that prevent the discussion of sexual themes in articles.
FERPA is constantly being thrown in our face for everything it seems. In Frank LaMonte's revealing discussion, I learned that though most administrators are afraid that they'll be sued by parents for breaking FERPA laws, that no school has ever paid a cent for a case brought on by FERPA.
I have been the advisor of the paper for three years but I'm not afraid to admit that our articles have been a bit mundane. The administration wants more from the paper, but they are unwilling to give the students the true freedom to write about subjects that matter to them. I think the group I have coming up is going to have some great and controversial topics. I'm hoping the administration will give them and me a little breathing room for success, but if they don't, my students will now have the tools they need to stick up for themselves when censored. They may even be bold enough to try and cure our school, district, or state of Hazlewood.
Steve Haslam
Copper Hills High School
West Jordan, Utah
I'm fascinated by the Hazelwood ruling because I don't feel like it matches up with Tinker, and that's confusing to me. I was also interested in what Frank LoMonte said about how some states have "cured Hazelwood" and don't, at least by my understanding, have to abide by that ruling. How does that work? Can anyone explain it further?
ReplyDeleteI also am saddened that you weren't allowed to run your piece on Planned Parenthood. That would have been so interesting--both for students to write and to read.
Emily Sell
Bingham High School
South Jordan, Utah
Hazelwood is such a Death Star for student expression, journalism and common sense. I love that some states have laws rendering it invalid and wish Arizona would follow suit.
ReplyDeleteSteve Elliott
Arizona State University
Phoenix
When I took over my school's paper, a lot of veteran advisers told me the story of how a "rollback to Tinker" law made it all the way to the governor's desk in Illinois...and he vetoed it. There seems to be new momentum to start that process up again and I would really like to get involved in that cause. I think the people who tried to do it the first time are mobilizing and are going to start letting us know how we can help, soon. Politics as they are, I'm sure there's a good way to go about doing these kinds of things. I'd be happy to help in any way I can and look forward to reigniting this process in my state.
ReplyDeleteKeith Carlson
Naperville Central High School
Naperville, Ill.