Saturday, March 29, 2008

Student paper censorship

From a 202er:

Hi Katy,

I realize this is a little outdated, but this Chicago Tribune article delves into a topic you touched on in last Monday's lecture. This Illinois high school teacher was forced out of her position as advisor to her school's paper because of her decision to allow a column with profanity (and a student's thoughts on smoking and dealing pot).
Parents and the administration were outraged, yet her staff, both current and alums, back her fully. According to the article and the students, she did amazing things for the paper, so did she deserve to be fired?

2 comments:

Katy Culver said...

this case is interesting because they didn't fire her directly over the contents of the story or try to prevent publication. instead, they fired her for publicly critiquing her principal. that's a question of free speech rights in and of itself.

Holly Olp said...

I don't think she deserved to be fired. It seems even the editors were in agreement over her decision to use the quotes until somebody objected. Then, since nobody found anything wrong, they fired her for criticizing her boss. Can they even do that?