On April 21, a jury found the Puyallup School District innocent of charges that they “invaded the privacy of four students.” The whole issue came up because Emerald Ridge HS (in Washington) included four students’ names and sexual histories in a story about oral sex. The four students, all who have graduated, sued the school district for between 500,000 and 1 million dollars in damage, claiming that “their reputations were ruined.”
Even if the second part is true, it doesn’t mean that the high school newspaper (or whatever official organization the students are suing) is guilty of anything. Dallas Welker, the kid who conducted the interviews, got consent before publishing their names. That’s pretty much the only piece of information that the jury needed to make their decision. Those four students could’ve, and probably should’ve, told Welker that they want what they say about themselves to be kept out of the newspaper. The fact that they didn’t, and gave their consent, makes their lawsuit after the fact totally illegitimate. The jury saw this as well, and cleared the school district of doing anything wrong.
Welker herself summed up the heart of the issue well when she told The News Tribune, “If we want to build professional journalists, we need to treat them like that from a young age and give them the rights that all professional journalists have.” In the real world, articles on sensitive topics that involve personal stuff happen all the time. Just think about all the magazines that interview celebrities, or news stories that examine corruption. Should there be a roadblock to all those things just because the subjects of those stories suddenly decide they don’t like it? I don’t think so.
The jury did a great job in ensuring Freedom of Speech in the Puyallup School District.
-Siyang
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