Who says kids don't learn the classics?

This editorial from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

A principal's immodest response

If students knew enough about Irish-born satirist Jonathan Swift to parody him, it would be cause for celebration in most area high schools. Instead, it led to censorship at East Coweta High.

Senior Justin Jones burlesqued Swift's 18th-century essay "A Modest Proposal" in the September issue of Smoke Signals, East Coweta High's student newspaper. Lampooning complaints about the drag on the economy by poor Irish families, the great Swift wrote: "A young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled."

Titling his piece "Another modest proposal," Justin suggested that the euthanasia of low-IQ students could alleviate the world's woes. His essay and a critique of an East Coweta Princess beauty pageant by the paper's managing editor Caitlyn VanOrden spurred a classic example of administrative overkill.

Principal Derek Pitts impounded 500 undistributed copies of Smoke Signals and told the staff that he wanted more positive and uplifting stories. His overreaction effectively turned Smoke Signals into a free-speech crusade. Resigning her editing position in protest, Caitlyn has created a Facebook site about the saga and is organizing a First Amendment rally.

A "positive" school newspaper devoted to winning football scores is not only boring, but it doesn't teach teenage journalists critical thinking skills. It doesn't take courage to report that the high school band bought new uniforms. It does to challenge the status quo, and that's what good school newspapers should do.

While the U.S. Supreme Court granted school administrators the right to censor some student publications, it stipulated that officials show reasonable educational justification. The justification at East Coweta seems neither reasonable nor educational.

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Here's the article by Justin Jones, which satirically suggested the bottom 25 percent of fifth grade students on a standardized test be euthanized to remove "the bottom of every class." See http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals2.pdf

Van Orden's column criticized a school beauty contest. "Judging who is the most beautiful in our school certainly does not contribute to our education," she wrote. See http://times-herald.com/media/20071012_SmokeSignals1.pdf

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Managing Editor Caitlyn VanOrden who formed the Facebook group, "Let Freedom Ring for Smoke Signals" does not go quietly:

East Coweta High School’s student newspaper has been censored and then shut down.

As you probably read on the front page of the Oct. 12 Times-Herald, the opinion page of the Sept. 2007 Smoke Signals issue caused controversy that resulted in the stifling of the students’ freedom of speech and freedom of the press as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The newspaper came out Sept. 25 and about 1,500 copies were distributed; on Oct. 1, EC principal Derek Pitts confiscated the remaining 500 from the journalism classroom; they are now sitting in his office. When I, the managing editor of the paper, went with my mother to discuss the matter with Mr. Pitts on Oct. 3, I was told the papers were taken due to inappropriate content. He pointed to what he thought was profanity – the word “bastardizing,” which is not a curse word at all; it means to corrupt.

He was also upset that the newspaper printed the word “hell” when quoting an EC senior who is enlisted in the US Army as saying “it was hell” when interviewed about his boot camp experience, during which four of his friends died.

He also took issue with my opinion editorial in which I said the Indian Princess Pageant at EC was shallow and bad for girls’ self-esteem; he felt it was too negative of a reflection on our school.

The newspaper’s opinion editor wrote a piece, also on a page labeled “Opinion,” based on Swift’s “A Modest Proposal,” in which he used satire to humorously suggest stupid people be killed. I was informed by Mr. Pitts that he only wanted “positive, uplifting” news published.

Following the confiscation of the papers and the following ruling that our ewspaper could not run any articles or editorials about Halloween, our newspaper adviser resigned.

Without a faculty adviser, Smoke Signals cannot be produced.

Even with an adviser, our paper will have to be approved before it can be printed; this means only “positive, uplifting” things will run, with no mention of the problems at East Coweta.

Have you ever read a newspaper filled with only happy news?

The “offensive” articles are posted here for all to read. The Times-Herald articles can be found on http://www.times-herald.com/.

Regardless of your opinion on the editorials in Smoke Signals, you must recognize that Mr. Pitts is infringing upon student rights to voice opinions, even unpopular ones. The writers have the right to express opinions, and you have the right to disagree with them and respond to them. This is the beauty of the First Amendment.
National Freedom of Speech Week is October 15-21. Celebrate your freedom as an American and stand up for student press rights.

A stranger called my mom after looking us up in the phone book following the articles in the Times-Herald to tell her to tell me to keep fighting the good fight; he had spent many years in the military defending those very rights.

To fight for student press rights and a clearer, more liberal student publications policy, email Superintendent Blake Bass at blake.bass@cowetaschools.net or call the Coweta County Board of Education at (770) 254-2801. OR write a letter to the editor or soundoff in the Times-Herald.

Read the student publications policy that has allowed Mr. Pitts to effectively shut down the newspaper at www.gsbaepolicy.org/policy.asp?PC=JHCC&S=4046&C=J&RevNo=1.11.