A summer intern at the Cape Cod Times named Henry Rome was such an outstanding journalist at his high-school paper in Pennsylvania that he was named the National High School Journalist of the Year.
Now, before he heads off to Princeton University this fall, he’s fighting a proposal that could result in his old paper being censored by school officials before publication.
George Brennan reports.
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I do love the idea that concept of "prior review" is so heinously bad. It's a concept I've found most educational administrators are woefully unaware of. I'm a radio guy, so it's not quite the same, unfortunately. But I often score points with the line: "You do realize that if this were a newspaper, and this were a public school, your administrators would be under arrest already…right?"The funny thing is that it's not far from the truth; the courts have repeatedly determined that prior review is completely illegal at state/public schools…it's a clear violation of the First Amendment. Unfortunately, private schools (and radio stations in general) do not enjoy this protection…but it's not hard to lump it all in the same context. And nothing cuts through the haze of hyperbole like jail time for an administrator. Even threats of lawsuits don't have THAT much impact.Granted, I don't know if anyone's ever actually been arrested for committing prior review at a public school. But considering you're talking about violations of the Bill of Rights, it's certainly within the realm of possibilities.