[Infowarrior] - Students say district forced them to publish paper

[Richard Forno]

www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/chi-high-school-newspaper-25-nov25,0,6312471.story

High School: Students say district forced them to publish paper
By William Lee

Tribune reporter

November 25, 2009

Less than a week after administrators at Stevenson High School in  
Lincolnshire halted the release of the student newspaper because of  
stories dealing with drinking, smoking and teen pregnancy, staff  
members said they were told they had less than two hours to produce a  
paper without the controversial stories, or receive failing grades.

The staff members said they were not allowed to remove their bylines  
from the paper, which they said was sloppily put together and rushed  
to printers.

"We had no time to do it. It was sloppy. It was gross. It's not what  
we do," said Stevenson senior and staff writer Stephanie Glassberg.  
"It's not our paper anymore, it's the administration's paper."

Statesman Editor-in-Chief Pam Selman said the paper's staff was given  
the option to move past the November issue and concentrate on next  
month's issue, something the administration denied saying.

Newspaper staff members said they felt forced and threatened to put  
out an inferior product.

District 125 spokesman Jim Conrey said the administration never  
intended to stop publication of the paper. "We never said we were not  
going to publish the November issue. We said the issue was being  
delayed to provide more time for editing and layout," Conrey said.

Free-speech advocates criticized the administrators Tuesday.

"This is certainly one of the more outlandish abuses of power we've  
ever seen by a school administration," said Frank LoMante, executive  
director of the Student Press Law Center. "You'd be hard-pressed to  
find a more blatant violation of the First Amendment than what  
Stevenson has done today."

The controversy centered on several stories slated to run in last  
Friday's paper. In one, two National Honor Society students, quoted  
anonymously, admitted to drinking and smoking, which are prohibited  
under the society's no-use contract. Newspaper staff members said they  
have secured free legal counsel.

wlee at tribune.com