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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1977)
Page 8 THE BATTALION WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1977 focus A tale of two papers Bad news no news at Battalion writer Karen Rogers describes local and national views on high school freedom of the press in today's focus section. She takes a look at the Bryan High School 'Norseman and the A&AI Consolidated Paper Tiger, as well as court rulings on the subject of high school press freedom. V Journalism students at Bryan High School are under the impres sion they are writing for a newspaper. Administrative officials, how ever, have designated the school paper as a public relations tool to show the positive aspects of the high school. “Our philosophy is to project the good things at Bryan High School. The world can see too many of the negative aspects of life already,” said Don Wiggins, Bryan High School principal. Students who write for the Norseman have not always agreed with this philosophy. They felt the newspaper should contain useful in formation and community activities rather than being limited to por traying only the positive aspects of BHS. “We had our hands tied. We wanted to have controversial things that the students could benefit from, but we had to present this positive image to Dr. Summers (superintendent of Bryan Indepen dent School District),” said Marilyn Haveron, 1976-1977 editor of the Norseman. “The Norseman was kind of like ‘let’s hear it for the kiddies’ and ‘don’t worry about national problems’.” Mary Hesalroad, 1974-1975 editor, said her staff wanted to do interpretive stories on subjects such as drugs and birth control. She said these stories were stopped in the newsroom, however, since the administration would not allow these subjects to appear in print. “Our sponsor was trying to teach us journalism like they do in college,” Hesalroad said. “But we never could really print any good stories because she had to keep in mind what the principal thinks about. That’s not journalism, that’s taking dictation. “We had a lot of neat story ideas we could never do because our adviser would sit there and laugh because we wouldn’t have a ghost of a chance of getting them printed. They were issues we thought were vital to the students, like drugs and politics. “You don’t have to think to be a high school journalism student; all you have to do is be a walking stenographer.” Wiggins said he prohibits articles from being printed that he feels would cause a disruption in the school. “I try to follow our basic philosophy and again explain to the young people or turn the article around. Most of the time it’s a matter of information or a lack of information in the story,” he said. An example of the confrontation between the Bryan High School press and administration arose last year when Wiggins vetoed then sports editor Steve Pearson’s story suggestion of the drug trafficking situation at Bryan High. “We just wanted to get the principal to do something about it,” Pearson said. Wiggins defended his decision: “We try to project the positive. We re working to combat the drug problem. I still don’t see how printing that would help combat the drug problem. It might cause some youngsters to try it.” He said he would deny permission to write an information story on birth control because “it could cause some youngsters to experi ment.” Donna Fisher, co-editor this year, said she wanted to do feature stories on Jack Ford and Mrs. Ronald Reagan when they visited Texas A&M University last year. Bryan High,r\ while just across town. . . Permission was denied because, as her adviser told her* they die not have stories on the other presidential candidates or their families. Dr. Summers said that although he was not familiar with the story, “we bend over backwards trying to be fair. If it’s an article on Demo crats or Republicans, then we have to answer because we re using taxpayers’ money to support it (the Norseman). Wiggins said the students should “stay within the confines of Bryan High School and highlight the things that happen here, because community coverage is in the local newspaper. “I think there’s enough news to be written about at Bryan High. There’s no need to go out into the community to solicit news. Students might be allowed to cover community news such as the winners of the local livestock show or a concert sponsored by a local group if their adviser thought they were capable, he added. As for students covering speakers and concerts on the Texas A&M campus, Wiggins said, “I would have to look at it (the story). There are some things that happen on a college campus that don’t need to be exposed on a high school campus. A bomb threat last year that interrupted most of a school day was not reported in the Norseman. “We had some real good quotes from the principal and assistant principal, but they wouldn’t let us print it, Haveron said. The story the students wrote to be published in the Norseman was instead printed in the Eagle. Wiggins said he was afraid the publicity in the school paper would “set off a rash of bomb threats.” He admitted he received several bomb threats in the next few days, anyway. Linda Whitley, adviser of the Norseman for two years, said she left BHS in 1975 because of the stringent rules applied to the paper by the administration. “We weren’t allowed to print anything that suggested we did not agree with the policies of the administration and the board of trus tees. “The whole thing stemmed from the fact that the school feels since it’s a school-sponsored activity, the administration should be the ones to determine what goes into the paper. Whitley now teaches journalism at Brenham High School and is the sponsor of the newspaper and the yearbook. “I’ve never had any attempt at censorship here. 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