The Latest Archives

Noteworthy views and events
on student expression questions

Three recent incidents involving censorship make for interesting reading. Students, and advisers, can learn that not everyone agrees with such actions and that the best remedy for censorship is vigilance. New Jersey – A local columnist sides with the students in censorship of story about students smoking cigarettes • This policy needs a rewrite •…

Let the Sunshine in

by Stan Zoller In the musical “Hair,” they sang about letting the sunshine in. John Denver sang about sunshine on his shoulders. Next week journalists will be heralding sunshine not because Spring is (supposedly) around the corner but because it’s the ninth annual “Sunshine Week,” a week dedicate to ensuring open and transparent government. According…

Information worth knowing

Looking for new topics for your staff or for lessons? Take note of these current topics and issues: • The US Supreme Court refused to hear a Pennsylvania school district’s appeal of the “I (heart) boobies” federal appeals court decision. • Storytelling is the same no matter the platform. The takeaway: “The other model is called…

Broken Hearts and Broken Minds

by Jane Blystone Sometimes staffers are afraid to write stories about depression because the topic is too close to home, but the staffers of the Crimson Crier at Sparkman High School in Madison, Alabama, did that very thing this past school year. Their adviser Erin Coggins shared the results of their work. “We decided to…

April Fools’ negatives outweigh positives,
usually don’t fulfill techniques of satire

Fabrication? Non-credible information? Misleading direct quotes? Seeking permission to quote from sources or asking them to approve information? Putting advisers into the position of making content decisions normally left to students? Is this the nightmare scholastic journalism advisers ultimately fear? It could just be students preparing for an April Fools’ issue. Although every major scholastic…

For those struggling to succeed,
don’t give up

By Kathy Schrier, MJE Scholastic Journalism Week is here, and again we acknowledge and celebrate the important role of the student media in our schools. We know of great schools boasting excellent journalism programs where student reporters are allowed to shine and are applauded in their school communities. Even if they are challenging authority or…

High School Students, Teachers
Experience Student Media Censorship

More than 25 years after the Supreme Court limited First Amendment protections for high school student journalists, a survey of students and media advisers attending a national scholastic journalism convention indicates censorship is a fact of life in many schools. Of the 5,506 students and teachers who attended the National High School Journalism Convention in…

Temper social media rights
with journalistic responsibility

By Tom Gayda I am a First Amendment fighter. I have long stood by supporting people’s rights to say and do what they want. But then came social media. There is a fine line between what is right and what is wrong sometimes. Sadly, with the never-ending onslaught of posts, likes and tweets, the notion…

Six schools earn First Amendment
Press Freedom Award

A committee with representatives from the Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association and Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society is pleased to announce the six winners of the 2014 First Amendment Press Freedom Award. The award recognizes high schools that actively support, teach and protect First Amendment rights and responsibilities of students and teachers,…

Student free speech vs. adviser job security?

“But what do you do if what they want to publish may cause a problem?” Rachel asked, a little furrow of a frown between her eyes. She and the other 16 education majors in Kent State’s Teaching High School Journalism course had heard all about the value of a free press from Knight Chair in…

Does your mother love you: Get three sources;
Is the Verification Handbook useful: Check it out

As scholastic media and their advisers move more to online media and use more social media as a reporting tool, verification remains a critical issue. Enter the Verification Handbook, a product of Poynter’s Craig Silverman and American Copy Editors Society (ACES) Merrill Perlman. Subtitled “A definitive guide to verifying digital content for emergency coverage” it…

Students Tackle Coverage of Rape Culture

Fourth in a series of articles about student journalism that makes a difference Jane Blystone, MJE Covering a taboo topic like “rape culture” can be very daunting to any journalist. However the scholastic journalists at Palo Alto High School did not let the culture of silence deter them from telling covering this story that their…