School Censors Student Paper Over Provocative Photos

The editor-in-chief of The Rochester Talon says prior review of content by the Rochester High School administration “takes away from having a real journalism experience.” (Photo via Shutterstock)

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After its staff published photos of a condom-wrapped banana and a student smoking a hookah pen, content in the The Rochester Talon, a nationally award winning student newspaper, is now under administrative review.

The photos, accompanying articles on sex education classes at Rochester High School and changing smoking trends among teens, were met with mostly positive feedback from members of the student body, editor-in-chief Danielle Kullmann told the Washington, DC-based Student Press Law Center.

But after a parent complained, administrators said the photos, published in November and January, were too provocative. As a result, content in subsequent issues would be subject to administrative review, the district said.

That’s despite a board policy that affirms First Amendment rights in student publications, but leaves it to the “professional staff to define the limits of responsible journalism and speech.”

See the Photos:

• Here’s The Banana Photo That Got the Paper In Trouble
• Here’s the Hookah-Smoking Teen Photo School Said Violated Good-Conduct Policy

The school district said the photo of the teen smoking the hookah violated the district’s student code of conduct, even though it was taken off campus and the photographed student, 18, was of legal smoking age.

Interim high school principal Neil DeLuca also objected to some content in the February issue, the first subject to administrative review, because it included a photo of students using the “OK” hand gesture, which he said can also be used as a profane gesture.

Also on Patch:

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• 50 Sexting Terms Kids Don’t Want You to Know
• Teen’s Nude Selfie Turns Into 5-Year Nightmare
• Sexting and Kids: Should Advent of ‘Sexting’ Prompt Legal Reform?

DeLuca also objected to an advertisement from Crossroads Pregnancy Center, the organization that operates the school district’s contraceptive education center. Editor-in-chief Kullmann said the ad also appears in student newspapers at Rochester Adams and Stoney Creek.

Prior review “takes away from having a real journalism experience,” Kullmann, recently named the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association’s journalist of the year, told The Oakland Press.

“We don’t get to make our own decisions,” she said. “To have a barrier between what we publish and how people respond is such a (hinderance) to the experience.”

In a statement, Rochester Community Schools retaining the power to censor content and restrict student expression in school-sponsored newspapers – a right of school administrators affirmed in a 1988 Supreme Court decision – is important to ensure students aren’t offended.

“Rochester Community Schools encourages our students to learn about responsible journalism by gaining experience through their school newspaper,” the district said in a statement.

Tell Us:

• What do you think? Should the school administration take editorial control of the newspaper?

“Because student journalists are still engaged in the learning process, school administrators and advisors provide rational guidance to ensure content is appropriate and not offensive to other students, parents and the community,” the district said, noting student newspapers at Rochester Adams and Stoney Creek are also subject to prior review.

District spokeswoman Lori Grein said the review policy “is not so much a matter of ‘approval’ or ‘disapproval’ of the publication,” but “focuses more on how school administrators and/or advisors work with the student journalists to ensure content is appropriate and not offensive to other students, parents and the community.”

Journalism Advisor: “Well Researched, Presented in Good Taste.”

Talon faculty adviser Julia Satterthwaite, the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association’s 2014 adviser of the year, declined to comment on the dustup, The Oakland Press said.

Oakland University director of journalism Garry Gilbert told the newspaper in an email that The Talon’s coverage was “well researched and presented in good taste.”

“The edition was better written and edited than some college newspapers I’ve seen,” he said.

He also noted that “the very definition of news means some of those topics are going to be controversial.”

In 2013, The Rochester Talon was named one of the best student newspapers in the country by the National Scholastic Press Association. At the state level, the newspaper has been similarly recognized four of the past five year.

“Our program has turned out actual journalists and helped so many others decide what they want to do,” Kullmann told The Oakland Press. “If this continues, I don’t know how many of the younger students will learn” as much about journalism.