10 January 2014
THE CLASSIC
SPECIAL FEATURE
THE CLASSIC
30 YEARS OF THE
January 2014
11
SPECIAL FEATURE
CLASSIC
The Classic published its first edition in December of 1984. Throughout 2014 we will look back at our history. This month we are taking a look at The Classic’s history of defending First Amendment rights against censorship.
FIRST AMENDMENT
RIGHTS by Jennifer Walsh
For the past 30 years, The Classic has served as the main source for the news and opinions of students at Townsend Harris. Sometimes, published articles cover topics sensitive enough to spark greater discussion and interest among the school community. When THHS reopened in 1984, The Classic was created with the visions of holding its reporters “to very high standards, and it was a lively paper that captured the adventurous spirit of this exciting new school,” said Ilsa Cowen, who became the advisor in 1987 and remained in the position for 23 years. In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier that schools could legally prevent school newspapers from publishing controversial stories. In order to protect the newspaper’s freedom of speech, Ms. Cowen and The Classic’s advisors drew up a charter to ensure that it would remain “an open forum for the expression of student views.” “The editors and I worked on it together to produce a legal document that set forth not only students’ rights, but also the responsibilities that go along with those rights,” Ms. Cowen recalled. The charter was signed by the school’s founding principal, Dr. Malcolm Largmann, and every principal since. Though the charter was originally granted to The Classic, it has been applied to other Harris publications over the years. The Classic’s charter was not simply a symbolic document; over the years, many articles questioning school policies have been published without any school censorship. Former Classic advisor and THHS alumna Caroline Cross also shared her memories of uncensored, conversation-starting pieces. “In 2010, Pearl Bhatnagar wrote an article...about students’ bags being searched before the senior trip. She questioned the legality of this, and somehow the Daily News got wind of it and wanted to interview her for a story. Pearl didn’t want to take it that far, but I remember the stir it caused,” she said. Brian Sweeney, The Classic’s current advisor, discussed the news story published last year about bell schedule changes. “Tensions were high everywhere, so as someone who was new to the school, I was concerned the editors could get it all wrong and make things more tense and problematic than they needed to be. I think that that’s where we had an especially good test of the charter, because other schools may have asked the editors not to cover the story when we did and the way the editors did...I felt strongly that the editors should cover it how they wanted to, and they worked hard to make it an important story. They collected 19 pages of interviews, and I think that for better or worse, their news coverage got the facts right, and they won an award for it,” he said. While The Classic has challenged the school’s authority many times, it has also published pieces about national events. Ms. Cowen recalls a review of a controversial new album by Ice Cube that came out the year following the L.A. riots of 1992. Student writers Erik Bloch and Michael Munoz confined their review to the album’s features and beat variations, without mentioning the explosive words at all. “When I asked them why, they replied [that] they didn’t think they were allowed to write about such things. Assured that they could indeed discuss the lyrics, they rewrote the story, and a rather dull review became an important commentary on race relations and the power of rap albums to act ‘as a common link between kids in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Douglaston Manor.’” The final version of that review won first place in the National Quill and Scroll contest.
CENSORSHIP
by Suswana Chowdhury
The Classic is unique in that it has a fully drafted charter protecting all publications from prior review. However for most other high school newspapers the administration holds the right to review and pull articles from the newspaper before printing. Though the administrations of these schools are legally allowed to censor the newspaper, most student journalists and advisors oppose this legality. Starr Sackstein, advisor of The Blazer at the World Journalism Preparatory Academy views censorship as an “insidious and dangerous practice.” “When we allow our basic free speech to be infringed upon, then the news isn’t accurate; it is biased. The school paper has an obligation to report everything through the lens of what’s important to our audience. As long as the information is reported responsibly, there is no reason to censor.” The World Journalism Preparatory Academy, while protected by an editorial policy, still feels under watch by the principal. Editor-in-chief of The Blazer, Ardhys Deleon is currently working on an unsigned editorial and has been warned by administrators that the principal will not take it very well and to be very careful. “To be honest, that has definitely made me afraid to write this piece; it has even made me second guess it,” she said. Censorship in high school newspapers is a common occurrence not just in NYC, but also in the whole country. The Arrow student newspaper in Oregon was not allowed to distribute their paper last May because the administrators were unhappy with a column one student wrote. The column dealt with the student’s displeasure over the non-renewal of the lacrosse coach’s contract. The administration felt the printing of the article would be a disruption to the educational environment, forcing the students to reprint the issue with a different column. In Pennsylvania, The Playwickian wrote an editorial for their October edition, declaring they were no longer going to use the term “Redskins”—the school’s long time nickname and mascot— due to its derogatory meaning. The school principal, however, gave the newspaper a directive to continue to use the term, arguing the students had no right to make that decision. Student newspapers face censorship daily. According to a survey conducted by the Student Press Law Center in November 2012, 42% of students and 41% of advisors, who attended the National High School Journalism Convention, said school officials had told them not to publish or air something. 500 students and 78 advisors were surveyed. Both students and advisors indicated self-censorship was an issue they confronted. 39% of students and 32%of advisors said their staff had decided not to publish something based on the belief that school officials would censor it.