Opinion | Don’t censor student journalists

The recent incidents of student journalism censorship are unacceptable, especially for a country that has an amendment in place to prevent censorship of journalists. Illustration by WYATT LINCOLN, illustrator

Student journalists from two different high school newspapers have faced censorship from their schools within the span of a couple weeks. This development is unacceptable and should not become a “normal” occurrence.

Viking Saga, the student newspaper of Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska, was shuttered just three days after they published a May 16 issue with a few articles dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community. The issue, which was published before the last day of school, contained an editorial on Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and articles on the science of gender and the history of the LGBTQ+ movement.

Renee Elefante, news & politics editor

Prior to the publication of this issue, school administrators ordered the staff members to use their birth names in their bylines. At least three students in the journalism class identified as transgender and felt uncomfortable using their dead names in the content.

A week later at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School (DPMHS), its student newspaper The Pearl Post learned that adviser Adriana Chavira would be suspended without pay for three days for refusing to remove information from a November 2021 article. The article, which focused on the effects of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s staff COVID-19 mandate, stated that DPMHS librarian Greta Enzser had opted out of getting vaccinated and left the school.

According to reporting from The Los Angeles Times, upon seeing this information, Enzser asked Chavira and the newspaper’s staff to remove the information, as she believed that they had violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) by publishing private medical information that she left the school due to the mandate. Enzser was backed by DPMHS and LAUSD administration, who requested that the paper remove the information or the administration would take disciplinary action against Chavira.

Chavira and the staff rightfully refused, arguing that the school administration can’t punish Chavira for protecting a student who was engaged in journalistic conduct, as per California Education Code 48907.

These two acts of censorship have faced widespread condemnation within the journalism community. It is outrageous that both of these districts were able to censor student journalists. It is even more outrageous that one of these districts successfully shut down a student newspaper.

Student newspapers are an essential part to any campus, high school or college, especially since they are responsible for keeping the community informed on what is happening campus-wide and for holding administrators accountable when necessary. 

When a student paper is shut down by school administration, its staff members are not able to report on the stories and issues affecting the school, and as a result, the administration is able to filter the information that gets shared with the community. Thus, the community loses a very important part of itself: its truth seekers. How is the community supposed to be aware of the darker truths in a school when the only voices that can shed light are silenced?

Administration cannot censor a student publication for publishing content that they don’t agree with. With the news article on the history of the LGBTQ+ community, the students at Northwest High School were seeking to inform their fellow students on a marginalized community that some members of the student body identify with.

Through the editorial, the editors were voicing their support for their peers and providing their opinion on the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The whole point of an editorial is for an editorial board to be able to look at a current event that is happening and express their views on it.

Just because administration does not support or agree with the LGBTQ+ community, the science of gender or openly criticizing the “Don’t Say Gay” bill does not warrant any valid reasons to shut down a student newspaper, especially when some of the staff members are directly affected by the content of an editorial or news article.

With the case of The Pearl Post, the students were doing their jobs in reporting on the effects of the vaccine mandate and that one of these effects was school district employees leaving their jobs. The students had obtained the name of their librarian, who was one of these employees, and they had even reached out for comment but were turned down. It’s expected that they would mention the librarian, especially since students on campus would walk into the library and notice that Enzser was gone.

Additionally, HIPAA only applies to healthcare providers and the companies that handle health plans, billing and storing medical records. Most schools and school districts are not legally required to abide by the strict privacy and security rules that healthcare providers must abide by.

In an editorial written by The Pearl Post shortly after they learned of Chavira’s suspension, the staff wrote that “no one from the school district gave us any names of unvaccinated staff, so there was no such violation.” The publication also stated that they spoke with a representative from the Student Press Law Center, who confirmed that the students are not legally required to remove Enszer’s name.

At the end of the day, student journalists — especially high school student journalists — are still journalists and should be respected as such. Student newspapers across the country play a huge role in their schools and are often the best representatives who can inform outside communities of what is really going down in their schools. Several interesting and serious stories have been published on a wide range of topics, depending on what is affecting specific schools:

• Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School’s student newspaper, Eagle Eye, brought firsthand coverage of the Valentine’s Day 2018 school shooting that took place on their campus. The paper also published a special In Memoriam issue a couple months after the shooting.

• The Bull’s Eye, the student newspaper at Diamond Bar High School, published an investigative story in 2019 on local tutoring centers and the academic cheating allegations that students from these centers were experiencing firsthand or hearing about.

• In 2017, the Booster Redux from Pittsburgh High School found that their school principal had lied about the universities she attended and when she had supposedly attended them. The revelations later led to her resignation.

• Manual RedEye, duPont Manual High School’s student newspaper in Kentucky, broke the story that in a presentation for cadets, the Kentucky State Police encouraged its officers to be “ruthless killer(s)” and included quotes from Adolf Hitler.

• See even more stories here.

Student journalists across the country are already doing important work in their communities and exposing harsh truths. They must be allowed to continue doing this work without fear of retribution from their administration. Administrators don’t have to personally agree with every single piece of content that gets put out, but that doesn’t give them the excuse to silence or punish their students or advisers.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to more accurately reflect the fact that all information in this story about Daniel Pearl Magnet High School is attributed to the original reporting of the students at The Pearl Post and reporters at The Los Angeles Times.