Integrity
Articles lack dignity
Published 05-14-1998
Martin High's end-of-the-year edition of its school paper represents a failure in oversight and an embarrassment to the student journalists. But it's most disturbing by what is revealed about some student attitudes.
The year-end Warrior Post included farewell articles from student writers that contained sexually-explicit language, racial epithets and other inappropriate references.
Certainly, such references should have never made it to print, a failure that is being addressed by campus and district administrators.
Moreover, the papers should never have been distributed. The papers were released because the district apparently has no policy requiring review of the newspaper before its distribution.
The rationale is that principals are too likely to pull stories they don't like, leading to prior restraint and unjustified censorship. That's sad. We should expect and demand more from our principals.
Principals should be reviewing the papers - not for whether they support the content, but for legal concerns such as avoiding libel.
If training is needed, provide it. If a third-tier review is needed when a decision to hold something is made, create it. If the worst that happens is that the paper is unnecessarily delayed a day, it seems a reasonable sacrifice. Such delays and reviews certainly occur in professional newsrooms.
Kids need room to error, but that room should not expose the district and taxpayers to potential libel suits, nor should it give space for student writers to make personal attacks on their peers. These writers weren't reporting or commenting on news. They were using the paper inappropriately for personal reasons and the district should protect against that.
Administrative and procedural failures, however, do not excuse or explain the content of these columns. And that should be our primary concern.
Referring to others in the degrading terms used in the Warrior Post, even if in jest, makes a sad statement about the dignity and courtesy with which some youths treat their peers and others.
There is a certain respect we must accord one another, whether we agree or disagree, like someone or dislike them. Such respect was sadly absent in several of these articles.
It is important that we, collectively and individually, demonstrate that dignity and instill it in our youth.