School leaders make bad call on news story

Could it be that super sensitive school administration can’t seem to abide one word of negativity and view their school newspaper as a public relations rag? Stop the presses, because that’s not journalism.

As a recently retired high school newspaper adviser, I understand administrators (principals and superintendents) who want to maintain some control, but that’s where they might consider a positive relationship with the newspaper staff and adviser, and simply ask for a heads up on controversial stories. That’s how we rolled at Fayetteville High for 18 years while I was adviser. In my last year, number 19, I was ordered to allow our principal to review each article and opinion piece BEFORE publication. He viewed this as being an editor while I viewed it as prior restraint.

The law enacted in 1995 states specific grounds for halting student publications.

None of those reasons existed at Har-Ber, but administration did it nonetheless because someone might get their feelings hurt.

This is a student newspaper and a teaching tool. But the story is now a lot bigger since administration decided to pull the plug on the paper instead of just letting the story go.

What are administrators truly teaching our student reporters when this is how they treat them? GENIECE YATES Fayetteville