Principal plans to review school newspaper
October 16, 2008
By Laura Geggel
The Mount Si High School administration has announced it plans to review every issue of Cat Tales, the weekly student newspaper, before it hits the press.
According to Snoqualmie Valley School District policy 3221, the principal retains the right to review any student publication for up to 24 hours prior to printing. The School Board approved the policy in 1993, but it has not been exercised until now.
Co-editors-in-chief Sean Byrnes and Julie Censullo.
At the Oct. 9 School Board meeting, Cat Tales’ co-editors-in-chief Sean Byrnes and Julie Censullo asked Superintendent Joel Aune to intervene. Aune said he was “in the process of following up with (Principal) Taylor to share the students’ concerns.
“I certainly appreciate the enthusiasm and passion expressed by the students last Thursday,” Aune said. “It is expected, however, that practices in regards to student publications will fall within the parameters outlined by school district policy.”
Principal Randy Taylor said the policy came to his attention this summer. Last year, a Cat Tales editor and columnist, who has since graduated, used profane language in his writing, Taylor said.
Taylor added that he was concerned about the abundance of opinion columns in relation to news articles and said some of last year’s opinion pieces demeaned student groups.
“We would like to see the student writing in some instances rise to a level of higher journalistic standard,” Taylor said.
Byrnes, a senior, and Julie Censullo, a junior, countered Taylor’s remarks.
“The columnist last year that used most of what they called offensive was not as offensive as they deem,” Byrnes said.
In regards to printing opinion pieces, Censullo said many students used Cat Tales as a forum to voice their thoughts about the Day of Silence, a day in which about 200 students chose to be silent to promote tolerance and draw attention to the harassment gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people face.
“Obviously, there was a lot of controversy last year,” Censullo said. “Whatever we could have written could have offended someone somehow.”
Cat Tales normally goes out on a weekly basis. If Taylor requires 24 hours to review the paper, Censullo said they would have a shortened production schedule.
Supreme Court rulings protect different degrees of student speech. In the 2007 case of Morse v. Frederick an 18-year-old student displayed a banner reading “Bong Hits 4 Jesus,” across the street from his school in Alaska.
“The court wound up saying the school can censor speech that encourages the use of illegal drugs, but can’t censor just because they subjectively find it objective,” said Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. “If you let administrators censor the paper based on what they subjectively find offensive, there would be no discussion at all.”
The policy states “controversial issues may be presented provided that they are treated in depth and represent a variety of viewpoints.” However, publications “may not be libelous, obscene, or profane nor may it cause a substantial disruption of the school, invade the privacy of others, demean any race, religion, sex, or ethnic group, advocate the violation of the law or advertise tobacco products, liquor, illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia.”
According to LoMonte, administrators can intervene if newspaper content is “substantially disruptive,” but otherwise students should get the full benefit of the First Amendment.
“Substantial disruption would have to be something like telling students how to hack into the school computers or setting off some kind of a health scare that frightened people from showing up to school,” LoMonte said. “Certainly, just giving coverage to a controversial issue is not a substantial disruption.”
LoMonte said censorship hinders the ordinary function of student newspapers.
“It’s a bad educational practice,” LoMonte said. “The principal of a school is like the mayor of the city. A professional journalist would never show their story to the mayor of the city before they went public.”
Yet, Taylor said he would not abuse the policy, even if the articles were written about him and the high-school administration.
“If they follow those high standards of journalism, they have nothing to fear,” Taylor said. “There would be no efforts on the part of the administration to censor or restrict their thought.”
Cat Tales advisor Susan Holihan’s journalism students, a class of about 10 people, have chosen not to publish the newspaper until school administrators change the review policy.
“We’re interviewing and researching, we’re running a paper and learning about journalism,” Byrnes said. “We’re just not printing the paper.”
He and Censullo said they were wary about the future of Cat Tales as a legitimate student forum.
“Sean and I were both staff reporters last year,” Censullo said. “We both know and understand how Cat Tales has operated as a student forum. We’re afraid, once we have graduated and new editors come in understanding this policy, it will become a newsletter and not a newspaper.”
Mount Si is not the only high school in the state facing review. The Puyallup School District approved a policy Aug. 26 allowing school principals the right to review all student publications.
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10 Responses to “Principal plans to review school newspaper”
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It doesn’t make sense to punish this year’s students and set dangerous precedents for future students because of something a student who has already graduated said. Why didn’t Mr. Taylor talk to the student last year about language he found objectionable? Mt. Si has a proud journalistic history which has led to national awards. An open forum school newspaper is the proper place for students to voice their views. They learn critical decision making skills in an open environment. Prior review and censorship may lead to less controversary but also to less learning. Throwing out those learning opportunities because of something that wasn’t questioned when it happened makes no sense.
These new editors have just come into their own as editors, and had their chance taken away before they had the opportunity to show what kind of publication they would be putting out. Mr. Taylor should have at least let them continue on and see what the new editors would allow, seeing as how what he disapproved of was written by a student who has since graduated. I feel the rights of the “student run” newspaper are being violated. It ceases to be a student run publication when the administration decides they have to look over every last detail. As stated by Mr. LoMonte there is no way to please everyone when reporting on a controversial topic, such as the day of silence. Seeing as how it is a student run publication, but with a teacher adviser, one would think that perhaps they could trust the students to be adults when writing and anything that was not up to standard might be noticed by the adviser. If Mr. Taylor does not trust his own teacher to advise the class properly, perhaps it should no longer be a class. That in and of itself would sadden me greatly.
Mr. Taylor admit your error and allow the student paper to be published. Without interference.
I don’t trust this administration. This seems like censorship to me and from what I know they haven’t done anything to warrant censorship. Why doesn’t this principal spend more time being the principal instead of the gestapo.
Let the students write what they want and if it is inappropriate you can punish them afterward. I think I saw a Tom Cruise sci-fi thriller about stopping things before they happen… The administration needs to wake up and realize that their school will mirror the “real world.” They can’t have a sterile little Disneyland that doesn’t reflect the real-life politics of the world. All this seems surreal that they would spend so much time and energy to try and have this policy. When students actually go to school board meetings and speak, then we know something is up– just like it was last year. The Snoqualmie Valley should be more of an example of civil rights– and in this case I mean Freedom of Speech. Mount Si High School is lucky enough to have an open forum which are important to foster different ideas and express differing view points. Many schools don’t have this privilege. Mount Si should foster an environment for good citizens, if anything this is causing an attitude of distrust of authority from the students.
I wonder what Mr. Taylor does during the rest of his work day when not trying to take the freedom of speech away from his students. I ask you, Mr. Taylor, if you have ever read a newspaper and if you knew that the Editor did all of the Editing.
This policy is an absurd violation of the basic need for freedom of expression. No good can come from trying to stifle the voice of a newspaper that is thoroughly enjoyed and respected by the majority of the student body. Highschool is already a volatile, precarious enviroment. We are constantly under the siege of well-meaning and not so well-meaning adults. So how dare they try to impede the publication of something that serves as such an entertaining outlet for the tension that plagues any teenager! It’s impractical and dangerous: such blatant censorship is surely a slippery slope. It’s just madness!
I support student press freedoms. I think that Mr. Taylor shouldn’t enforce the policy if it’s never been enforced before. It’s like Julie said “We’re afraid, once we have graduated and new editors come in understanding this policy, it will become a newsletter and not a newspaper.” The school already sends out a newsletter signed by Mr. Taylor we should have a paper that doesn’t need his approval.
Randy Taylor’s need for an ability to censor and excercise an executive power over Cat Tales is reflective of a more fundemental problem in Mount Si’s administration.
As an alumni who worked with the administration, I can tell you this man’s philosophy towards students is one of “I know what’s best.” He in general does not trust students to make the right decisions, and doesn’t place any value in allowing students to make a mistake that they can then learn from.
By bringing up his stance on this issue, he demonstrates is lack of trust in both his own students and in his own staff, chiefly the newspaper advisor.
At Mt. Si, controversial issues have not emanated from the student newspaper, rather they have appeared in there as a symptom of a greater, schoolwide problem with attitude. There is a lack of respect from the administration for the students, which is in turn reciprocated by the student body. This disharmony results in a school that is all too prone to blowing up over otherwise minor issues.
Overall, this newspaper controversy is symptomatic of a larger issue present in the attitude of the administration. To the administration, I beg you to ask yourself towards what goals do your policies and decisions go towards. Do you have in mind the best interests for yourself, or the well being of your students?
If the principal says if the students follow high standards of journalism they have no fear of restriction, then why have prior review?
There is no legitimate educational value for prior review and it serves no educational mission of the school.
Instead, it only seems logical and educationally effective for students and administrators to practice journalistic standards that enhance accuracy, thoroughness and completeness. Such standards are best developed in a forum atmosphere where students learn civic engagement and responsibility from their decisions.
In a forum atmosphere there is discussion and give and take of ideas.
In a prior review there is only take. No learning. No critical thinking. No applying what is taught in classes.
It should also be known that Mr. Taylor is breaching the rights of students and parents involved in this matter. When the parents of one of the editors wrote to Mr. Taylor asking him to please stop taking the student out of class to talk about this issue and to schedule meetings either before or after school, Mr. Taylor went and complained about it to the other student co-editor! Mr. Taylor actually had the nerve to talk to a student about what the parents of the other editor were asking of him. By breaching this trust of confidentiality, Mr. Taylor is showing just what his attitude is on the subject. He obviously doesn’t care about the student rights or the parents rights!
Perhaps the Sno-Valley Star should investigate that matter?
The school has an agenda: They want to focus to be on learning. Interestingly enough, they take the real-life learning experiences and try to keep them out of the school, and even out of the valley. So in reality, the school doesn’t care about actual education. They care about their reputation in the valley, in the state of Washington, in the nation. Hence pushing the WASL so hard. Having taken the test and been surrounded by other students who have taken it, I know that the students don’t gain anything from this absurd graduation requirement. But it is a simple matter of control. Same with this censorship. Words are so powerful and that is why people are afraid of them. The administration is so afraid that eventually someone will reveal the truth which is that all they care about is their own authority, their own power (and that the school system they run slightly resembles totalitarianism.)
As a former journalist (and yes, I was an editor on my high school newspaper), I am all in favor of freedom of speech.
However, I have to say that in my opinion, this newspaper is not really a newspaper. My high school newspaper supported itself through advertising. If the students want to have their forum unsupervised, then they should pay for the publication. To me, it’s like when my 19-year-old son wants to go somewhere that I don’t want him to go. He’s 19, and he has the right to go anywhere he wants to that’s legally open to him. He does not, however, have the right to use my car to get there. Why should Mount Si pay for the publication of anything that it has no control over? In the real world, newspapers pay their own publication costs or they go bankrupt.