This Issue of The Riptide Was Censored
By
Katie Horner, Marya Purrington & Amanda Zheutlin
Principal Susan Hanson directs editors-in-chief and reporter not to print an article.
This was not the article intended for this space in The Riptide. Although we cannot discuss the content of the article meant for this space, we can say that The Riptide was directed by Principal Susan Hanson not to publish.
After Hanson read the article, she directed a letter to The Riptide staff on March 6, that said, after speaking with Vashon Island School District Superintendent Dr. Marguerite Walker and the school district’s attorney, she would not allow the newspaper to publish the article. She said in her letter, “a student newspaper is not an appropriate vehicle for airing concerns, complaints or criticisms about District staff.” The district policy states that publishing criticism of personnel may be prohibited only “when there is evidence which supports a forecast that substantial disruption of school may develop.” The definition of school disruption according to district policy states that the article would have to cause people to leave class, set fire to school property, use or threaten to use firearms, block traffic, interfere seriously with class or encourage gambling.
Regardless, the article is being censored. This is the first article in the history of The Riptide to be censored by the principal.
A meeting was held on March 6 with the editors of The Riptide, the reporter, and the principal. Hanson’s statements during the meeting included advice from the school district attorney who referenced Supreme Court case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) that ruled in favor of Hazelwood. The decision stated that a school “need not tolerate” student speech that is “inconsistent” with the “basic educational mission, even though the government could not censor similar speech outside the school.” It also says that educators do not violate the first amendment by “exercising editorial control over the style and content of student speech in school sponsored expressive activities” so long as their actions are “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.” Hanson said that through this decision the Supreme Court grants her the right to censor the article.
Her concerns included “the fairness and open-mindedness of the article and possible defamation claims.” The article reviews both sides of the stories with quotes from multiple sources on each side. The article was written fairly, accurately, and objectively according to a Tacoma News Tribune reporter, and Adam Goldstein, an attorney from the Student Press Law Center both of whom vetted the story.
The editors and the reporter met with Walker on Wednesday, March 7. Walker said that Hanson came to her with her final decision to remove the article and Walker agreed with her. However, Walker’s interpretation of the process of deciding to not print the article differed from the letter written by Hanson to The Riptide editors, where it clearly stated, “After consulting with the District’s attorney and superintendent Dr. Mimi Walker, I am directing you to not publish the article…”
Walker said her main reason for censoring the article was to prevent the disruption of school operation, embarrassment and dissent in the community, and because of her personal high level of confidentiality. She said because of the amount of work Athletic Director Jim Ohlsen, Hanson and herself would be loaded with, due to the number of phone calls this article would generate, the school operation would be significantly disrupted. Walker also stated that the article should not be published because it was an evaluation of personnel and not a story.
Walker said writing about staff members or programs that are tied to a certain faculty member were all evaluations of personnel and all were subject to censorship. However, Walker decided only to censor this article, whereas she does not have an issue with the other articles The Riptide has written including evaluations of school dances and other school programs.
Although this article is not appearing in this issue, The Riptide staff is investigating the options of possibly printing this article in the future, researching what makes an article censorable and if this article is indeed rightfully censored.
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Gay on Vashon: From Keeping It In to Coming Out
Vashon High School has been very accepting of all kinds of students, including this one.
Vashon High School is not widely known for diversity but we do have students from all different backgrounds: exchange students from different countries, students who speak different languages at home, and homosexual students. VHS is accepting of all of these diverse situations, many of which are common, but homosexual students have the harder task of telling their friends and family that they are gay. It’s called coming out, and that’s exactly what senior Berry Amason did.
Q: When did you know you were gay and how did you decide you were?
A: “I knew I was gay during freshman year. When I realized that I was a homosexual was when I confronted my sexual feelings towards boys, that was when I felt that I was gay.”
Q: What was it like to come out in high school?
A: “When I decided to come out, I felt really depressed and really tired of trying to fit in to the heterosexual world. I wanted to release my true identity to the people that I knew. I didn’t want to hide who I really felt I was.”
Q: Was it a hard decision to come out to your family?
A: “For me, it was hard to tell my family, especially my grandparents. They have always been a close and big part of my life and they are very affectionate and loving people. The hardest thing about telling them was when, before I came out, I asked them what they thought about same-sex marriage and they told me that they were totally against it. I got very emotional and hid my feelings from them.”
Q: How did you end up coming out to them?
A: “I came out to them in a letter and sent it to them in the mail. Doing that gave them some time to grasp and try and understand what their feelings were and what was going on. They are compassionate people, so they later came to reality and accepted who I was.”
Q: What was the hardest thing for your grandparents to understand about you coming out?
A: “The biggest thing for them was their feeling of loss when I came out to them because they felt that I would never have a wife and could never have a traditional family. They had so many amazing dreams for my future that they imagined.”
Q: What was it like to tell your parents?
A: “The most emotional family member to tell was my mother because and I have always been very close and trusting in our relationship. I just didn’t have a clue what she would feel. When I came out to her, she was never hurt or disappointed, she just really worried about my safety. My dad didn’t have a problem with it either; he just knew that that was who I was. I have been blessed with my amazing parents.”
Q: What was it like to come out to your friends and how did they take it?
A: “My friends have never had a problem with me being gay. The instant most anybody found out they were just really exited and happy to finally know someone who was gay. Most of my friends have been really proud of me to have the courage to come out when everybody else was in the closet.”
Q: If you could say something to other students who are still “in the closet”, what would you say to them?
A: “I would say that life is just too precious to waste and that when they are ready to come out that they understand that what your identity is is who you are and that can’t change what has been given to you. You need to find your passion for life and thrive. You are not alone in your discovery of who you are. You are just part of the smaller picture.”
Q: Are you fairly open about being gay?
A: “I’m pretty open about being gay and am very proud to be who I am and to know what my passions are.”
Q: What was the hardest part of coming out?
A: “My hardest part of coming out was probably trying to accept who I was. The easiest part was probably feeling an amazing burden come off my shoulders when I released my deepest and most personal secret to myself and my world.”
Q: Anything else you’d like to add?
A: “I don’t try and be preachy, I just feel blessed. I have just been opened up to another world.”
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