Sexual Assault Spread - Konah 2017-18
This spread covered the #MeToo movement, sexual assault, and the Women's March. Along with editorial cartoons and infographics, this piece needed to be approved by our administration as it covered controversial topics and featured a photo illustration of a student with a bare back. Production was delayed while the principal took the proofs to his supervisor, and we had to meet as a staff with him before he would say whether or not he approved our work. After a slight modification of the words and phrases written along the model's back we were approved to print.
This was a learning experience for our staff, as we have not had to deal with many instances of prior review in the past. While the Missoula County Public School District is under Hazelwood, we have always, for the most part, had the freedom to print as we pleased, as long as anything we deemed controversial was approved by the administration. We understand that prior review leads to staffs censoring themselves, although in the last two years, I don't feel as though we've done that. In this instance, we turned in a mock-up of the spread to the principal, and had to wait approximately five days to proceed with building the spread. The final decision came after a lengthy discussion between the staff and the principal, where we were asked to defend our reasons for wanting to publish this piece, and what journalistic point it was trying to make. We were well-versed in our rights by our adviser, and we handled ourselves with professionalism. We were given the approval to print later that evening.
In addition, while the model was a staff member, and the photo was taken in privacy with no nudity, she asked that she remain anonymous as to not draw attention to herself. We made sure to adhere to her wishes.
This was a learning experience for our staff, as we have not had to deal with many instances of prior review in the past. While the Missoula County Public School District is under Hazelwood, we have always, for the most part, had the freedom to print as we pleased, as long as anything we deemed controversial was approved by the administration. We understand that prior review leads to staffs censoring themselves, although in the last two years, I don't feel as though we've done that. In this instance, we turned in a mock-up of the spread to the principal, and had to wait approximately five days to proceed with building the spread. The final decision came after a lengthy discussion between the staff and the principal, where we were asked to defend our reasons for wanting to publish this piece, and what journalistic point it was trying to make. We were well-versed in our rights by our adviser, and we handled ourselves with professionalism. We were given the approval to print later that evening.
In addition, while the model was a staff member, and the photo was taken in privacy with no nudity, she asked that she remain anonymous as to not draw attention to herself. We made sure to adhere to her wishes.
Mental Health in the School System - Konah 2016-2017
This spread featured controversial topics and as our district is under prior review, we turned in our pages for approval before publication, even though we were explicitly not told we had to. We knew we didn't have anything to worry about, but we decided to err on the side of caution, as another school in the district had recently been under fire for a publication at the time. With this issue we had to address why we wanted it published and what was our reasoning was for reporting on this issue. The content had to be moderated to be approved for the public audience but as a staff we agreed on the rulings as this topic needed to be presented to the student body.