More on that censorship story

I had mentioned that 1,800 copies of a student newspaper were confiscated in a Tennessee high school in yesterday's post. Well, today I found more information. The paper was confiscated because "...Superintendent Tom Bailey said the contraception article needed more "editing" before it was acceptable for the entire school to read."

However, the contraception article was immediately followed by an editorial advocating abstinence:

The birth-control piece ran above another article, "Spenser advises students to wait until marriage for sex," by Spenser Walsh, in which the teen advises his peers that he is only trying to "talk you out of a decision that perhaps might change your life." Walsh goes on to warn of the dangers of STDs, unwanted pregnancies and the emotional toll taken by relationships that start with sex.

School administrators had no problem with this second article, though it touched on similar content. Perhaps the contraception article did contain graphic language, but in that case it could have been edited. In fact, it was replaced by an opinion piece on the school play.

The paper's student editor in chief, Brittany Thomas, said the school demanded the change. "I was told to fill it with another editorial," she told the Sentinel.

It occurs to me that these students were trying for balance by putting an abstinence only piece just below the contraception article. That seems quite fair and responsible-- moreso than the superintendent who axed an article he didn't agree with.

[A] statement from the Society of Professional Journalists released on Wednesday strongly condemned the action. "This is an example — a bad example — of school officials censoring news content simply because they disagree with it," SPJ President David Carlson said.

Mead Loop, SPJ's vice president for campus chapter affairs, said... "[H]ere we have an example where a principal teaches a lesson to students that censorship is preferred to an open reading of news."

Instead, Carlson said, "Educators should foster open discussion of ideas rather than attempt to limit the discussion. It appears the students tried to do good journalism, and the administration is holding them back."

The ACLU is said to be considering getting involved.