WASHINGTON -- Student editors at three Puyallup School District
high schools are pointing to a recent case of censorship as proof they need a
publications policy without prior review.
The latest issue of
JagWire at Emerald Ridge High School includes an
empty space that simply declares, "This story has been censored,"
according to a press release from
Fight for the Right to Write, a
group formed by student editors at three district high schools whose goal is to
work with the school board to create a new student media policy without
including prior review or prior restraint.
The absent story covered the school district getting a favorable jury
verdict in a lawsuit in which four students had claimed they had not given
consent to JagWire to print their names and "private
information" in a February 2008 article about oral sex. Last month a
Pierce County jury ruled that the newspaper had not violated the students'
privacy.
According to the group's press release, JagWire reporter Allie
Rickard decided to withhold her story about the lawsuit from print after it was
prior reviewed by Mike Patterson, an attorney representing the district in the
lawsuit. Patterson, an attorney with a Seattle law firm, insisted that
Jagwire editors not publish the plaintiffs' names, change a quote
from another attorney with Patterson's law firm, and rewrite an
explanation of the meaning of a limited forum, the press release said.
Patterson was traveling outside of the country and could not be reached for
comment by press time.
The student group e-mailed Superintendent Tony Apostle and school board
members about their proposal to work together on a new policy. In an e-mail
response, obtained from the school district's Executive Director of
Communications Karen Hansen, Apostle told the students that the board of
directors did not have plans to change its publications policy, but he would be
willing to work with the group on one condition: students and their parents
agree to accept financial responsibility for the student publications.
Rickard, an editor at the JagWire and a member of the student
group, said the students are willing to make that agreement if they can return
to an open forum status, which would require a policy without prior review and
prior restraint.
Mike Hiestand, a Student Press Law Center attorney who has been working
with the students, said this latest incident focuses attention on the problem
with the current policy and shows its need to be resolved.
"I think [the school district] understood pretty clearly what
the students' objections were and why they would be upset about not being
able to report on very public information from a public trial," he
said.
Amanda Wyma, also an editor at JagWire and member of the Fight for
the Right to Write group, said a policy without prior review would give
reporters "the chance to cover the things that really matter."
She said since the new policy of prior review was put in place, she has
seen her fellow reporters shy away from covering more difficult topics because
they think they might be censored. After she graduates in June, reporters at
Emerald Ridge won't know what it is like to cover those issues, Wyma
said.
"When we leave, me and one of my co-editors are the last two who will
have seen an open-forum structure in our newspaper," she said.
The Fight for the Right to Write group organized a public meeting May 3 to
educate the community about their goal of creating an open forum status for
their publications. They have also used their
website and a
Facebook page
to rally community support and have asked
students and community members to sign a petition supporting their idea.
Rickard said they hope to meet with school officials before the school year
ends on June 16.
"We want a policy in place by the time school starts next year so all
of those starting in student journalism and continuing in journalism have a
solid policy to work from," she said.
Apostle was unable to comment for this article.
By Josh Moore, SPLC staff writer
