PUTTING IT IN WRITING Even as a student newspaper, we hold ourselves as staff writers to the highest standards. That's reflected not only in the staff manual I put together, which includes:
We have had to have conversations, both classwide and among editors, about our content. We held one news piece about the Naviance college application software that made dubious claims about our school counselors, and we've worked to add quotes from teachers to stories that complain about said teachers' behavior. It's a constantly evolving process as we run into new situations - for example, we decided as editors that we will not delete any online comments unless they are spam. WITHIN THE SCHOOLHOUSE GATES Our newspaper operates somewhere between a limited public forum and non-forum. While we are technically prior reviewed, our content has never been withheld and students have always driven our editorial content ("indiscriminate" use as per Hazelwood). Regardless, we have conversations as a staff about how to responsibly curate our content. |
MAKING IT CLEAR WE'RE GETTING IT RIGHT We also emphasized our values and ethics codes in the six-week bootcamp curriculum I designed to start off the year. Even before our new staff released our first issue of the school year, we have an ethics crash course and activities including:
It is emphasized that material that is libelous, not fact-checked or not presented factually is not protected expression and will not be tolerated. Such material is subject, at any time, to removal from publication by the editors or adviser. Photo by Sara-Beth Badalamente AT THE END OF THE DAY, IT'S ABOUT PEOPLE And we respect that. For all the stories to be told and truth to be sought after, we recognize that there is a nuance to reporting. Even two days ago, there were wild rumors that a teacher was sent home because of COVID-19. As editors who knew that this was not true, we made a point to lessen the rumor mill without revealing the identity of the teacher who was sick (but not with COVID-19). |