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ethics ?
• Has any school administrator or faculty member required student journalists or a publication adviser to submit content for prior review before publication ? ( Having a teacher or adviser read content during the coaching process is not considered prior review .)
• Is there an expectation that student journalists or publication / media advisers will allow a school administrator to read stories or media content , especially those deemed controversial , before publication ?
• Do students , who are encouraged to first consult with their adviser , then make all final content decisions for student media before publication or broadcast ?
• Has an administrator or faculty member ever held your publication and not allowed its distribution ?
• Subject to reasonable time , place and manner restrictions for distribution of the publication , would students be able to report on a student walkout during school hours ?
• Would students at your school be able to report on clubs possibly considered controversial , such as for a gay and lesbian group ?
• During the past year , has your publication been restrained from distribution other than time , place , manner restriction ?
• Has any administrator or faculty member disciplined any publication student for a viewpoint he or she published or wanted to publish in the last year ?
• Has any advertisement or potential advertisement been blocked by an administrator or faculty member in the last year ?
• Has any student publication
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editor been dismissed or disciplined for publishing , attempting to publish or recommending a position on a topic ?
• Has your publication / media ever been told there are “ off-limits ” topics that cannot be published or broadcast ?
• Has any adviser been dismissed or fired , or threatened with dismissal or firing , because of a topic the publication covered or proposed to cover ?
• Has the journalism program faced removal from the curriculum because of threats based on coverage or proposed coverage of any topic ?
• Does your school system ’ s administration publicly support the responsibility of student publications / media to truthfully and accurately inform community citizens ?
Here are some questions some schools find challenging :
• Have you allowed sources to read stories before publication in which their quotes appear ? ( It is OK to verbally check quotes with sources .)
This can be a tough one if administrators or teachers demand to see stories . “ I just want to be sure I ’ m quoted right ,” or “ Sometimes reporters don ’ t really understand the situation ,” are both excuses that student journalists don ’ t know how to refute . But some prior discussion with the staff can help them see no journalist wants to give story control to a
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source — any source . Reading back quotes is fine and can help students realize they may need to ask more follow-up questions , but handing over a whole story is a no-no .
• Does your school have internet filters ?
While admittedly most schools must have filters to get federal financial assistance , guidelines governing the use of filters allow them to be lifted for educational purposes , and journalism / student media do qualify .
• Has a student been punished by the school within the past year for the content of a home website or an off-campus publication ?
Courts are not totally consistent on this , but if it does happen in a public school , courts have ruled schools overreached their authority to punish speech carried on outside school property . In other words , that ’ s not a good thing for a school that supports the First Amendment .
• May student faces and names be used on your online student publications website ?
That concern with administrators is disappearing — thank goodness . How can any publication present news
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Candace Perkins Bowen
Candace Perkins Bowen , MJE , is an associate professor in Kent State ’ s School of Journalism and Mass Communication and director of both the Center for Scholastic Journalism and the Ohio Scholastic Media Association . A former Dow Jones News Fund Journalism Teacher of the Year , she has served as the president of the Journalism Education Association . She is part of the Student Press Law Center ’ s Steering Committee for its Advisory Council and past head of the Scholastic Journalism Division of AEJMC
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