Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
Editorials & Other Articles
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
HS Newspaper Suspended For Publishing Investigation Into Football Players' Transfers [View all]
IDoTheRICOHat RetweetedA high school newspaper in a football-obsessed Arkansas town wrote an investigation about the transfer of five players to a rival school.
In response, the school district broke state law and suspended the paper!
(and ignored my requests for comment)
Link to tweet
A High School Newspaper Was Suspended For Publishing An Investigation Into Football Players’ Transfers
“They are like, ‘Well, you raised an uproar, we’re going to try and silence you,’” said Halle Roberts, 17, the editor-in-chief of the Har-Ber Herald in Arkansas.
Amber Jamieson
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on December 1, 2018, at 11:54 a.m. ET
....
Friday nights mean football in Springdale, a small city in the northwest of the state. So when five varsity players transferred from Har-Ber High School to their archrivals at Springdale High School in the middle of the school year in late 2017 — both schools are under the Springdale Public Schools district — student journalists at the Herald decided to investigate.
The Herald published its monthslong investigation — which questions the legitimacy of the school district’s approval of the transfers — on Oct. 30. ... “Once it dropped, everyone was talking about it,” said Roberts. “Parents were mad, students were mad. It just caused a chain of events.” ... Those events include the Springdale Public Schools district officials demanding the story be removed from the school website — despite Arkansas state law protecting the rights of student publications. Several school and district officials didn’t return requests for comment.
On Tuesday, Paul Griep, the principal of Har-Ber high school, announced the newspaper was suspended from publishing while the school district writes new protocols for student publications. Roberts argues that the school district is violating her and her classmates’ free speech. ... “They are trying to change the policy, which takes away our First Amendment right,” she said.
....
Three days after the story was published, the deputy superintendent for Springdale Public Schools asked Sprague to take the story down. She complied. ... Sprague and the journalism staff tried to get the district to allow it to be republished. ... But on Monday, Springdale Superintendent Jim Rollins wrote in a letter to Sprague that the story would not be republished because it was “intentionally negative, demeaning, derogatory, hurtful and potentially harmful to the students addressed in those articles.” ... Rollins also called it “extremely divisive and disruptive” to the school district.
....
“They are like, ‘Well, you raised an uproar, we’re going to try and silence you,’” said Halle Roberts, 17, the editor-in-chief of the Har-Ber Herald in Arkansas.
Amber Jamieson
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on December 1, 2018, at 11:54 a.m. ET
....
Friday nights mean football in Springdale, a small city in the northwest of the state. So when five varsity players transferred from Har-Ber High School to their archrivals at Springdale High School in the middle of the school year in late 2017 — both schools are under the Springdale Public Schools district — student journalists at the Herald decided to investigate.
The Herald published its monthslong investigation — which questions the legitimacy of the school district’s approval of the transfers — on Oct. 30. ... “Once it dropped, everyone was talking about it,” said Roberts. “Parents were mad, students were mad. It just caused a chain of events.” ... Those events include the Springdale Public Schools district officials demanding the story be removed from the school website — despite Arkansas state law protecting the rights of student publications. Several school and district officials didn’t return requests for comment.
On Tuesday, Paul Griep, the principal of Har-Ber high school, announced the newspaper was suspended from publishing while the school district writes new protocols for student publications. Roberts argues that the school district is violating her and her classmates’ free speech. ... “They are trying to change the policy, which takes away our First Amendment right,” she said.
....
Three days after the story was published, the deputy superintendent for Springdale Public Schools asked Sprague to take the story down. She complied. ... Sprague and the journalism staff tried to get the district to allow it to be republished. ... But on Monday, Springdale Superintendent Jim Rollins wrote in a letter to Sprague that the story would not be republished because it was “intentionally negative, demeaning, derogatory, hurtful and potentially harmful to the students addressed in those articles.” ... Rollins also called it “extremely divisive and disruptive” to the school district.
....
3 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read