A student editorial in the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School newspaper calling for more tolerance for gays and lesbians sparked the principal to seek approval of each edition before it goes to print and issue a written warning against the journalism teacher.
About 10 students attended the East Allen County Schools board meeting Tuesday night to ask members whether the issue could be put on the next meeting’s agenda. Superintendent Kay Novotny denied their request and suggested they meet with Assistant Superintendent Andy Melin instead.
“That’s probably a better forum than the board,” Novotny said.
Sophomore Megan Chase wrote an opinion piece – her first for the newspaper – that appeared in the Jan. 19 issue of the Woodlan Tomahawk that questioned people who believe it’s wrong to be gay or lesbian. Chase said she wrote the piece after a friend disclosed to her he was gay.
“I can only imagine how hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society,” Chase wrote. “I think it is so wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their brain; they’re just different than you.”
Principal Edwin Yoder wrote a letter to the newspaper staff and journalism teacher Amy Sorrell insisting he sign off on every issue. Sorrell and the students contacted the Student Press Law Center, an advocacy group for student newspapers, which advised them to appeal the decision.
Last week, Yoder issued Sorrell a written warning for insubordination and not carrying out her responsibilities as a teacher. He accused her of exposing Woodlan students, who are in grades seven through 12, to inappropriate material and said if she did not comply with his orders she could be fired.
Yoder would not comment for this story, but Melin, who said he hasn’t read the editorial, said school officials do not have an issue with the topic but with the lack of balance and thoroughness in the opinion piece. Sorrell also should have consulted with Yoder before the article was printed, Melin said.
Melin would not comment on any disciplinary actions taken against Sorrell.
The students also asked the EACS board to clarify its policy on tolerance of gays and lesbians, which it did not address. Melin said there is no policy and didn’t think the board should have to go as far as to write one. Melin said EACS has had a policy since 2003 that states principals have the authority to review each issue of a student publication before it goes to print. It’s up to the individual principal how he or she wants to enforce it, Melin said.
According to its Web site, the Journalism Education Association strongly opposes prior review.
Prior to the editorial being published, Melin said Yoder asked Sorrell to bring to him any stories she thought would be controversial. In fact, Sorrell brought Yoder a piece on teen pregnancy that appeared in the same edition.
“I didn’t think it was going to be an issue at all. I didn’t think anybody would be upset about it,” Sorrell said of the editorial on gays and lesbians. She wrote a rebuttal to Yoder’s warning and sent it to him and Novotny.
Melin cited the 1988 Supreme Court case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, which ruled St. Louis school officials had the authority to censor stories about teen pregnancy and divorce in its high school newspaper.
Adam Goldstein, attorney at the Student Press Law Center, said the Woodlan situation does not fall under the Supreme Court precedent, which permits a school to interfere with student expression only when it can provide a legitimate educational basis for doing so.
In the Hazelwood case, school officials were able to prove the articles went against what was being taught in the classroom.
“If students are not being taught tolerance in the classroom, their problem is much larger than this particular incident,” Goldstein said.
Yoder is practicing an illegal form of censorship, Goldstein said, and the Student Press Law Center has available attorneys who are willing to donate their time if the Woodlan students take the case to court.
Student Editorial
Sophomore Megan Chase wrote this opinion
for the Woodlan Junior-Senior High School newspaper, the Woodlan
Tomahawk:
We live in a world where we grow up being taught that it is
only acceptable for a boy and a girl to be together. So how do you think you
would feel if as you grew older and more mature you started noticing people of
the same sex as you, rather than the opposite?
I can only imagine how
hard it would be to come out as homosexual in today’s society. I think it is so
wrong to look down on those people, or to make fun of them, just because they
have a different sexuality than you. There is nothing wrong with them or their
brain; they’re just different than you. I’ve heard some people say that they
think there is a cure to being homosexual. I can’t believe anyone would think
that. It’s not a disease, or something that you catch from someone else; it’s
something that they don’t have control over. In saying that, I also believe that
homosexuality is not a choice. Almost everyone that I talk to says that a person
chooses to be gay or straight. That, again, is something that I believe to be
very wrong. If people made the choice to be homosexual, there wouldn’t be anyone
who committed suicide because they were too afraid of what people would think of
them, and kids wouldn’t be afraid of being disowned if they came out to their
parents.
There is also the religious aspect to the argument, where people
say that if someone is homosexual, they are automatically sent to hell. To me,
that seems extremely unfair. So what are homosexual Christians supposed to do?
The answer that I constantly get to that question is, “Just don’t acknowledge
that they’re homosexual and live a ‘normal’ life.” Excuse me? So they’re just
supposed to never find a partner, or marry someone of the opposite sex, have
kids, and pretend they’re “normal?” I don’t think that’s right, or fair. I
wouldn’t want to believe in something that would condemn me over something that
I didn’t even choose.
It is fact that as many as 7.2 million Americans
under the age of 20 are homosexual, and of those that have already come out, 28%
of them felt compelled to drop out of school due to the constant verbal assault
that they experienced after people found out. Now, if you think that is
terrible, this is even worse: According to pflagupstatesc.org, every day 13
Americans from the ages of 15-24 commit suicide, and homosexual youths make up
30% of the completed suicides. I don’t understand why we would put so much
pressure on those people, that they would feel that they have to end their lives
because of their sexuality. Would it be so hard to just accept them as human
beings who have feelings just like everyone else? Being homosexual doesn’t make
a person inhuman, it makes them just a little bit different than the rest of the
world. And for living in a society that tells you to always be yourself, it’s a
hard price to pay.