School issues apology for taking satire too far

Paper’s April Fools’ issue called Obama Nazi, ridiculed race.

A Cobb County high school has apologized for a satirical piece in its student newspaper that referred to President Obama as a “Nazi” and said he shouldn’t be re-elected because of his race.

Some parents and community members found the “Top 20” list offensive.

Student leaders of “The Stinger,” which approved the article, said the list was meant as a joke.

It appeared in the “April Fools’ ” section of the paper, which is known as “The Zinger.”

An unsigned apology is posted on Sprayberry High’s website:

“In regards to the Obama article, we would like to say that the arti- cle was meant as a piece of satire. The article was meant to be a comedic take on the media’s comments on the President. Satire is the use of humor, irony or exaggeration to poke fun at certain parts of society. We realize that this did not come off as we intended, and we sincerely apologize for offending anyone.”

The Cobb school district said the article was published without administrative approval.

The author of the article was listed as “Uncle Sam American Extraordinaire.”

The top four reasons on the list for not re-electing Obama were:

“1. He’s black. 2. He’s half white. 3. He’s a socialist. 4. He’s a Nazi.”

Some who read the list, didn’t get the joke. The story went viral on Twitter and Facebook.

Parents who saw it began calling Cobb County school administrators.

An apology was soon posted on Sprayberry’s website and read during the morning announcements explaining the lapse in judgment.

Jay Dillon, spokesman for Cobb County Schools, said student newspaper leaders sent out a video message apologizing for the “poor attempt at humor.”

Some parents say the edition never should have made it past the faculty adviser or administrators.

“The article was reviewed by the faculty adviser and the rest of the newspaper staff,” Dillon said.

The newspaper staff and adviser didn’t seek an administrator’s input on the material.

“The protocol is that anything controversial should be looked at by administration reviewers,” Dillon said. “The reviewers are the principal and the administrator over the English department.

The faculty adviser did not show the article to the reviewers prior to publication.” with,” board member Paul Womack said. “None of this is pleasant. None of us want to see someone take a pay cut or lose their job. But, ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got to face this.”

Dekalb schools parent Sandra Weaks wondered where the job cuts will come from. She said many parents in the southern part of the county will be concerned the job cuts will come from schools in their area rather than the northern part of the county.

Weaks also said she wanted to know what the job eliminations will mean for class sizes.

“Are we taking two steps forward but three steps back?” she asked.

Dekalb, like school districts across the state, has struggled financially as property tax revenue has declined. Womack has said he thinks the district could face a projected budget deficit of $77 million.

Walter Woods, the school system’s communications director, said the district won’t have a clear sense of its budget picture until later this spring.

Districts are required by state law to balance their budget, and if Womack’s suspicion is even close to being accurate Dekalb will face a series of painful choices.

A report by Virginiabased Management Advisory Group said the district could save $15 million by cutting the jobs of some assistant principals, school secretaries and media specialists. The district has not acted on that report.

But Dekalb has moved to a new zero-based budgeting system where the Sandra Weaks Dekalb schools parent district starts from zero and adds funding and staff based on how much is needed to carry out future tasks, not on how much was used to carry out those tasks in the past.

It is that new budgeting system, Woods said, that led Atkinson to conclude the district’s schools had 133 more employees than are needed.

A separate review of district-level positions is being conducted, and job cuts are expected there, too.

District staff members initially were going to recommend 182 school-level jobs be eliminated, which would have saved the district $12.7 million. But a review determined that 49 of those jobs still were needed.

Several board members raised concerns about cutting the jobs of those responsible for helping students graduate. Tekshia Ward-smith, the district’s chief human resources officer, said those jobs had been funded by money from the state. That money was cut several years ago, and the district has covered those costs since then.

Other school officials will handle the duties the graduation coaches and graduation specialists have performed, Ward-