Administration Outside Their Limits

By Caitlin McCoy
Feature Editor

Angela Rolston, a student in a publication at Bellevue East High School interviewed the superintendent, John Deegan, about the stimulus dollars. However, while reviewing the Q&A Rolston had compiled together, Deegan completely changed his responses. He said that he did this to prevent unnecessary controversy. Deegan argued that he did not know Rolston’s intentions prior to the interview.
My opinion on this dilemma is that the Q&A should have been left as it was originally. Deegan did not have the right to change his answers regardless of if he felt his words would give people the wrong idea. Rolston should have either not given him the Q&A to look at or should have made it very clear he could not change it at all. The situation was not handled perfectly on either end but the primary dilemma was because of Deegan’s wrong action of changing his answers.
On top of this issue, Brad Stueve, the principal at Bellevue East High School, decided that an article should be removed from an issue because it was inappropriate for a high school newspaper. This article was supporting the idea that students should attend board meetings to be knowledgeable of current topics being discussed.
In this situation, Stueve had no reason to stop students from attending board meetings. There is no rule preventing students from going to the meetings and therefore Stueve can’t suddenly disallow an article supporting it. Stueve’s action only makes others believe he is hiding something or that he does not want students to benefit. Either way, Stueve did not make a good choice.
It is unfortunate that both of these dilemmas occurred at the same high school with administration. However, every facility has its conflicts. Although both Deegan and Stueve had high positions within the school, they did not have the right to prohibit articles that were absolutely acceptable just because their opinion contradicted the material.