A Principal with Backbone
Scholastic journalism is not dead. Bend over what you thought was the corpse. Put your ear to its chest. Hear that faint heartbeat? Hold a mirror to the nostrils. See that fog of breath?
The poison of the Supreme Court Hazelwood decision has been eating away at the soul of the student press for more than a decade now, but has not finished the job. A sign of life can be found on page 12 of the Pinellas Park (Florida) High School yearbook.
According to an article in the St. Petersburg Times by Candace Rondeaux, the yearbook contains a “four-page spread on teen pregnancy,” including interviews with five pregnant high school girls and “a stark black and white photo reproduction of a sonogram of a pregnant student’s fetus in utero.”
It occurs to Dr. Ink that when one thinks about high school yearbooks, “in utero” is not one of the first phrases that come to mind. In most yearbooks, to borrow a line from Paul Simon, “all the world’s a sunny day.”
Credit goes to the student journalist who wrote the piece, Candice Reed, and to her yearbook advisor, Dan Evans. But highest honors go to principal Denise Hart. “It’s journalism,” said Hart to the St. Pete Times. “Some people think that because it’s a yearbook it’s something other than journalism, but that’s not the case. It’s a very insightful article.”
Doc has a recommendation for his friend Mark Goodman, the director of the Student Press Law Center. Fly down to Pinellas Park High School and extract some fluid from the spine of Denise Hart. Now travel around America injecting it into the backbone of all the other principals.
