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Prior review Stifles Student Press

A commentary on prior review by the president of the Indiana High School Press Association  

By Tom Gayda  

(Tom Gayda is president of the Indiana High School Press Association and director of student publications at North Central High School in Indianapolis. This column originally was published in the Times of Northwest Indiana, and addresses a First Amendment question at a northern Indiana high school).

Do high school administrators check the basketball team's plays before the big game? Do high school administrators read essays that students submit to their social studies teachers? High school administrators, or should I say those few who do not understand the foundations of scholastic journalism, do take the time to scrutinize the student newspaper, though.

An administrator should trust the people he or she hires, be it a coach, teacher or newspaper adviser. How sad that the principal of Lake Central High School sees the need to question a qualified faculty member's curriculum in a way that contradicts school curriculum in other areas. How sad that the administrator does not support an environment that celebrates a student-created publication that serves the purpose to convey news to the student body.

Certainly the Lake Central principal knows that the state and federal constitutions provide us all the right to free speech and free press.

Certainly health education takes place at Lake Central that discusses sex.

Certainly social studies classes teach students about the First Amendment and the entire Constitution.

What is good in one class is good in all. The school can't contradict itself in these ways. If the principal is going to review and question the content of the newspaper, one must assume she reviews Lake Central 's social studies and health classes, too. If every issue of the paper is reviewed ahead of time, one must assume the standard is that every teacher's curriculum is reviewed, too.

The school newspaper is a prime area to educate students. Principals can prevent certain stories from being printed, but under any legal precedence, those stories must be believed cause a disruption to the normal school day. Would an article about sex be a first? Hardly.

At the school that employs me, our students created a special eight-page section on sex. Sure, there were a few phone calls, but at no time was the paper subject to prior review or censorship. Student journalists will perform better when treated by their administrators as professional journalists.

Sure, kids make mistakes, but look at this paper and any other -- corrections are run on almost a daily basis. Making mistakes at the high school level is all a part of the process. An administrator serving as editor or quality control prevents students from learning as they go. When mistakes are made, staffs should own up to them, but now the weight falls on the administrator's shoulders. We should all be proud that students are exercising their rights in a free and responsible manner.

I challenge the local media to support educating administrators who don't get it when it comes to student media. Perhaps the local media should run the work that principals censor, although anyone who censors will find a term not so harsh.

I challenge administrators to realize that our Founders decided to have a free press. Nowhere does the First Amendment mention prior review by school administrators. Shame on those who deny our constitutional rights to anyone.

Hopefully, the Lake Central community is outraged something like this would ever take place. Hopefully, parents and alumni will support a learning environment where newspaper students and their adviser can achieve by putting good journalism into practice. Prior review and censorship does not accomplish good journalism.

Perhaps administrators who don't support their staff and students are the ones who need to face prior review.

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