Journalism in Jeopardy Story by Skijler Hutson, Zoey Greenwald, Mina Jang, and Sophia Kriegel Photos by Skijler Hutson Graphics by Mina Jang
I step into my first day of Journalism class. It is junior year, and I am late to the writing game, but still I’m here. I’ve got a shiny, new notebook in one hand and a ballpoint in the other. Here, I am going to be a real writer. The kind of writer who says what needs to be heard -- who writes about politics and social issues and sexism and racism and flawed institutions. The teacher tells us that our writing means something. That our voices need to be heard. That our words are important. She pats us on the back and sends us to the computers. I decide to write about spirit days. I write about the school dress code. I write about all the pretty things at West Ranch High School. I get a gold star. Then, I see my fellow journalists write about the not-so-pretty things at West Ranch High School. They observe, and they reveal. They write with a freedom which they believe they have. They write what needs to be heard. They both get called to the principal’s office. Their words are taken down. They are censored. High school is the first real taste of freedom that a student feels; its endless hallways hold promises of parties and late nights, football games and 4 a.m. drives. This treat, sugar-coated and shiny, is artificially sweetened with smoke and mirrors. There is a false freedom that comes when you enter those gates. It is the encouraging posters that hang on pasty
white walls. It is the administration, saying to write what needs to be heard, but only when they agree. Only when West Ranch is depicted as a shining beacon of beauty. It is all which glimmers with an idealistic promise of autonomy, cradled in a contradiction. There is no truth where there is no freedom.
What Happened
Skijler Hutson’s story on the rivalry between West Ranch and Golden Valley was pulled from publication by administration in the Fall of 2017. Mina Jang’s critique of the Associated Student Body was asked to be taken off The Paw Print’s website in the Spring of 2018. Sophia Kriegel’s light-hearted satire on restroom vaping was deemed an inappropriate subject for publication. We believe that such prohibitions have not been enacted on terms of irresponsible reporting, but rather because the content of the articles was found to be distasteful or controversial by administration. None of the articles were meant to cause harm or be outrightly rebellious. They simply were meant to start a conversation, and hopefully effect some change. That is the point of all investigative articles. The articles are opinion pieces. As long as the content of the article is true and doesn’t pose a clear and imminent threat, opinion writers are free
