KVNUFTP

Copper Hills High School publication being censored, principal has decision to make

Censorship with the student press is always an interesting issue.

At Copper Hills High School, the school’s award-winning literary magazine, “Chasms,” is currently in a holding pattern because school principal Todd Quarnberg apparently found some material inside the magazine that he found objectionable.

According to the Tribune, the material was “nightmarish, grotesque artwork and ‘PG-13′ profanity.”

Student press issues are interesting because publications at schools work under a different set of rules. As noted in the Tribune article, in many schools the principal of the institution is generally the “gatekeeper” of information in the publication. At many, at least here in Utah, school newspapers will be reviewed word by word by the school’s administration prior to publication. In many cases when administrators have exercised their right to restrict content in the school papers, students have cried prior restraint, but in general, the administration of a school is viewed as the publisher of the paper just as a publisher is viewed as the top official at a regular publication.

Still, administrators don’t have carte blanche to do whatever they want with the publications, as explains an official with the Student Free Press Law Center in the Tribune.

“A principal can’t just tuck the publication inside his desk and let it collect dust,” said Frank LaMonte, executive director at the Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., a free-press advocacy group.

In “Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier,” LaMonte said, the U.S. Supreme Court gave administrators leeway to censor “curricular” publications, such as school newspapers that are produced for a grade or as part of a lab or classroom exercise. But the censorship has to be driven by “legitimate educational concerns,” said LaMonte. “It can’t be about preserving the principal’s image or school’s reputation.”

Schools, however, are generally forbidden from interfering with “open-forum” publications, such as political fliers, unless the editorial content is significantly disruptive, “like showing kids how to hack into school computers and change grades,” LaMonte said. “The decisive factor in view of the Supreme Court is who is the gatekeeper, the principal or student editor? If historically, the principal has had to sign off on every word, then you probably have a curricular publication.”

Personally, I hope (and trust that they do) that administrators give students in high school journalism classes as much leeway as possible to produce authentic content from student voices. It’s a valuable experience and while I don’t advocate students publishing totally erroneous content, I do think that there are some valuable lessons that can be learned from making mistakes in reporting in high school (misquoting, for one.) However with this literary magazine, where it sounds like the principal’s personal life values simply conflict with the content of the magazine, perhaps he needs to gain a greater understanding of art and allow the magazine to be sold and, yes, allow it to offend both him and others.

Source: Student magazine recalled for objectionable content – Salt Lake Tribune.