Student journalists face more restrictions
Many of you were high school journalists. How do you react to David Shaw's column in the L.A. Times about increasing restrictions on high school journalists?
An excerpt:
The most recent manifestation of the crackdown on school papers came in Fullerton last week when officials at Troy High School placed Ann Long on a leave of absence from her job as co-editor in chief of the Oracle.
Long's "crime" was writing and publishing a story about two bisexual students and one gay student in what she called "an attempt to raise awareness on campus that people with different sexualities go through more emotional stress than the average teenager."
An excerpt:
The most recent manifestation of the crackdown on school papers came in Fullerton last week when officials at Troy High School placed Ann Long on a leave of absence from her job as co-editor in chief of the Oracle.
Long's "crime" was writing and publishing a story about two bisexual students and one gay student in what she called "an attempt to raise awareness on campus that people with different sexualities go through more emotional stress than the average teenager."
posted by Doug at 10:57 AM
1 Comments:
From Brock.Meeks@msnbc.com:
Doug, this is an important issue and one I've written about in years past. Unfortunately, it seems not much has changed.
HS journalists get hosed, plain and simple.
I've always thought it incredibly ironic in a place where kids are supposed to learn about things like freedom of speech they actually give up many of those rights the moment they step onto school property. (Witness the way HS officials can order locker inspections on a moment's notice, with no "probable cause" threshold to be met.)
What's the answer then? I think there is much to be gained by using the power of the web and Internet. HS journalists can collaborate in a kind of web-based collective "wire service" that is housed on servers outside the grasp of any one particular school district.
HS journalists can start blogs where their articles are written and posted on their own time.
If there is any type of medium that is viral in nature for high school kids it's blogs.
Plus there's that cool "outlaw" factor for an "off-site" school j-sim blog. You can imagine kids saying, "F*** the school paper; check out the blog!"
Post a Comment
<< Home