Poynter.org
Soon after reports surfaced that the Seattle School Board was proposing a policy that would subject student journalists to censorship, the group reversed its position. KUOW's Phyllis Fletcher tells Poynter's Al Tompkins how beat reporting helped her break the story:

...you have to find things that haven’t made anyone angry (yet). You’ll find things that are quirky, interesting, odd, or that demonstrate that the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. The more you bring these things to light, the more you and your audience learn, and the more you build credibility with tipsters — and with the body you cover. When you first start to cover a legislative body, it’s boring, intimidating, thankless, confusing, and all those things that cause you to question your life choices. Find a way to be amused by the tedium. Bring food. Get into it like you’re watching a movie. If your employer supports it, tweet or blog during the meetings. Notice the speech patterns and trivialities that drive you nuts. If you don’t understand something, ask about it. If people seem to be speaking in code, pay attention to that. Save all your tape. If you cover the same beat long enough, your old tape will be useful to you later.

Seattle Times
The proposed policy would give Seattle principals the authority to review high school papers before they're published and would allow them to stop publication if they deem material to be libelous, obscene or "not in keeping with the school's instructional mission and values," among other criteria, reports Brian M. Rosenthal. Kathy Schrier, executive director of the Washington Journalism Education Association, tells him that the proposal opens the door for administrators to pretty much censor at will. "It's just sort of, if you don't like the way something sounds or you think it's going to cause a phone call or something, then all of a sudden it doesn't keep with the values of the school" in the principal's judgment. The board will vote on the proposal Dec. 7. || Related from KUOW: "Stop the presses, let the principal check them first" || "The district's statement about why this is OK is classic doublespeak."

Mountain View Patch
Jose Antonio Vargas met with the Mountain View High School newspaper staff on May 11, and told the 35 teen journalists, "I'm an undocumented immigrant." He told them that only a few people knew, and asked that they keep it secret for a while.

For the next six weeks not a murmur, whisper, tweet or status update suggested the teenagers guarded privileged information for Vargas, 30, a former Oracle editor-in-chief and a 2000 graduate of MVHS.

Kevin Troxell, a 17-year-old entertainment editor at the Oracle, says he saw the shock on Vargas' face after he told the teens that he was undocumented. "He seemed surprised to tell us. He kind of put his hand over his mouth as if to say 'what did I just say?' ...Oracle is a tight knit group and we are all friends. He's a friend and an Oracle, and that was the reason we wanted to keep his secret."
> Vargas's revelations may be a victory for immigration advocates, but not for journalism
> Los Altos High School student paper posts video of Vargas Q&A