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Ohio student newspaper resumes publishing following censorship of suicide story

February 19, 2010


OHIO -- Stow-Munroe Falls High School's student newspaper, The Stohion, has resumed publication after being put on hold since late 2009 due to administrative censorship.

Administrators prevented the publication of an obituary and photograph of a student suicide victim in October. The student journalists of The Stohion continued to produce content, but decided to put their publication on hold due to the censorship.

Mike Brickner, communications director for the ACLU of Ohio, said a compromise was reached between the administrators and the student journalists to run the article without the photo of the student in a back issue that was released earlier this month.

Brickner said the most important part of the agreement was the removal of the principal's ability to unilaterally make changes to the newspaper. The agreement also includes an appeals process for potentially sensitive material, which goes through the faculty adviser, the principal and the superintendent.

In an interview with the Akron Beacon Journal, The Stohion's Editor-in-Chief Lyndsey Sager said she is satisfied with the agreement.

''The principal is going to take a look at the paper [before publication],'' Sager said, ''but she's not actually taking a pen to it."

"We're happy with that because we feel that that that'll much better protect their First Amendment rights and ensure that they won't be unnecessarily censored, and give them an actual process to be sure that if something is kept out of the paper, it is done so in a fair and just manner," Brickner said.

Brickner said The Stohion has been printing its back issues to catch up and so far has not had any problems. The paper should be on schedule in March.

By Nicole Ocran, SPLC staff writer

© 2010 Student Press Law Center
 
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For More Information:
  • Ohio principal censors student obituary and photograph News Flash, 10/23/2009


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