Parents protest School Sex Newspaper

[Polly]

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/parents-protest-school-sex-newspaper/n20070330165409990026?ncid=NWS00010000000001

:noway Ya know, I'm a pretty liberal gal. And a former teacher. But this crosses the line. One, it is for shock value, despite what the student editors say. Otherwise why would they include the comment from the unnamed janitor about finding a vibrator in the girl's lavatory shower?

Two: all public school newspapers should be read and edited by the advisor and at least one administrator before publication. (Yeah, I think the school's advisor will soon be out of a job.)

Three: newsflash for the students. The US Supreme Court decided years ago that while the rights guarenteed by the Constitution do not "stop at the schoolhouse door," student newspapers do not have the right to full freedom of the press. They can be edited and reject stories or topics that are considered inappropriate. In Virginia, this court case is taught in all Government classes as part of our Standards of Learning for the No Child Left Behind Act.

No, this material is inappropriate for a school newspaper and the advisor should know better.

Polly

[Lori]

I think that, in this case, it was a chance for the advisor to teach the students about how things work in real life. In many forums, you simply cannot say whatever you want. The NY Times doesn't put pictures of two teen girls kissing on the front page. You aren't going to write about sex toys found in the bathroom in your company's newsletter. Even aside from the fact that school newspapers are legally open to censorship, students need to learn how to express what they want to express in a socially acceptable way. I'm sure that they could have written about topics involving sex in a way that, even if it offended a handful of parents, would have been acceptable, but they didn't do that.

They also have the option of publishing outside of the school. That's why God made 'zines. ;) If they really wanted to write something racy or edgy, then they could have self-published it, and the school woudn't have had any say. But if they want to write in the school newspaper, then they need to take things like prevailing community mores into consideration, and their advisor dropped the ball in not guiding them towards doing that.

[gr8mommy]

Ya know, I'm a pretty liberal gal.

Really? I never would have guessed. :lightbulb

I think that whole thing is disgraceful. While I agree students should have freedom of speech with what they write, whether or not it should be published for OTHER students to read BY the school needs to have at the very least a review panel.