You Can’t Handle the Truth!

By Nick Hobbs

The Principal and editors of Dexter High School, Michigan, are defending their school newspaper, The Squall, from members of the community who are upset with its content. Co-editor of the school newspaper, Alex Everard, defended the newspaper and its content at a school board meeting. Everard hopes that there will be no alterations in the school’s authority over the students’ publication.
The community’s unhappiness with the newspaper is evident and there has been a plethora of anonymous blogging criticizing the school newspaper. There have been statements from community members saying that The Squall contained "frank sexual talk," "promotion of drugs and alcohol," "illegal gambling", and also had "tabloid journalism." Parents of the community complained, citing these examples when they attended a school board meeting on April 12.
During the meeting, Everard emphasized how the newspaper was simply reporting. He stated that there problems that go on within the school and that is undeniable. He argued that there is a difference between promoting these problems and reporting on them, and the staff members of the school newspaper were simply reporting on these somewhat controversial topics.
This, to me, is a very unfortunate situation. This newspaper is under intense scrutiny because the public doesn’t want to read or know about the dark side of Dexter High School . I believe it is wrong that the school newspaper is undergoing review and may have some of its freedom from school authority taken away simply because the parents want to remain oblivious to the cold, hard truth of what their children do.
This possible infringement on the freedom of press is very unfortunate and hopefully the school board meeting will review the newspaper and take an unbiased stance on the subject. The school board should not be bullied by the parents into altering a publication. Unless there is an actual problem with the content of the newspaper, there should be no alterations in the freedom of the student publication.