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Over-reaching in Overland

By David W. Bulla

The Constitution. Check.

State law in Colorado. Check.

District policy. Check.

It’s all there — several layers of legal protection for freedom of the press at the Overland High School Scout student newspaper in Denver’s southern suburbs.

Then the principal decided that something was wrong in an article about a recently deceased student. Originally, the principal challenged the citation of the cause of death, so the student journalists showed him the death certificate. Next the principal said the changes at the student newspaper were because of lack of funding. The students dispute this.

The next thing you know, the administration informed the adviser she will no longer teach the publications class, and the newspaper is suspended indefinitely (or will go to an online version only, where a policy will likely be in place that the prohibits the use of last names).

So today The First Amendment Blog offers several links to this situation in Colorado. Thanks to Greenlee School of Journalism administrative assistant Kathy Box and Leo Mores SPJ Chapter Vice President Tyler Kingkade for bringing this story to our attention.

Links:

Student Press Law Center article

Denver Post article (Saturday, March 26)

Aurora Sentinel article

Denver Post article (Sunday, March 27)

Denver Daily News article

The Great Writ blog

Scout editors’ Facebook page

This entry was posted on March 28, 2011 at 1:52 pm and is filed under College, Scholastic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Over-reaching in Overland”

  1. Links to information about Overland Scout situation :jeasprc.org Says:
    April 1, 2011 at 2:17 am | Reply

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  2. Links to information about Overland Scout situation | jeasprc.org Says:
    December 18, 2013 at 1:32 am | Reply

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