The policy, issued two days after Green censored a story on the website of the Register, the school’s newspaper, says that it is intended “to affirm support for the school newspaper, but also outline guidelines around how it functions.”
Seven Days obtained a copy of the new policy from the student journalists. It refers to Act 49, the Vermont law passed last year that was intended to prevent school administrators from censoring student journalists. But Green notes that there are six instances, such as libelous or slanderous information, that would be precluded from protection under the law, which is commonly referred to as New Voices.
“The only way school administrators can ensure that distributed material passes this litmus test, they must have the ability to view all material before it is printed,” Green wrote. “Thus, moving forward the BHS Register will re-continue the policy from 2016/17 which required material to be submitted to the administration 48 hours prior to publication.”
The students were scheduled to meet with Green on Friday to discuss his decision to pull down the Register story about guidance director Mario Macias, who faces state allegations of unprofessional conduct. But the newspaper editors — Julia Shannon-Grillo, Halle Newman, Nataleigh Noble and Jenna Peterson — asked to postpone the meeting after receiving Green’s directive.
“We are saddened that this new policy does not include contributions from Burlington High School students, reporters, or community members, or experts in the field, or school board members,” the editors wrote in a statement. “And we are shocked that it does not acknowledge Vermont law H413, also known as New Voices.”
Green on Thursday issued a statement saying he would allow the students to repost the story he’d ordered pulled down on Tuesday because it had “been published far and wide” by other outlets. The students have since reposted the story on the newspaper’s website.
At a school board meeting Thursday evening, residents and students blasted Superintendent Yaw Obeng for the censorship and the handling of the Macias allegations.
“While it is kind of Mr. Green to lift his ban on this one story, what we would appreciate more is if the Burlington School District did not break the law,” Shannon-Grillo said in a prepared statement on behalf of the newspaper’s editors.
After the enactment of Act 49, the high school operated under a new editorial policy, part of which read:
The Register will not be reviewed or restrained by school officials prior to publication or distribution. Advisers may — and should coach and discuss content — during the writing process. Because school officials do not engage in prior review, the content of The Register is determined by and reflects only the views of the student staff and not school officials or the school itself.Green did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Obeng responded to questions via email.
“BHS had a practice they followed which did not seem to work in this instance,” he wrote, referring to the Macias story. “The school is developing a policy with the students and staff advisors. I am sure any policy will be within all regulations.”
Mike Donoghue, a veteran journalist and executive director of the Vermont Press Association, said the new policy appears to be in conflict with Act 49.
“The entire purpose of the New Voices law was exactly to eliminate the administration from censoring student publications,” he said. “Burlington High School has a fully qualified teacher-slash-newspaper-adviser that is fully trained to sort out what should or should not be in there. This appears to be an attempt by a principal to be able to censor things they are not happy about.”
Donoghue said that BHS students had led the charge to get the New Voices law passed because of concerns at the time about administrative censorship. The 2016-17 policy to which Green is reverting, Donoghue said, “was clearly materially wrong, and that’s why the law got changed.”
He said members of the VPA, which represents the interests of Vermont’s 11 daily and four dozen non-daily newspapers, were “flabbergasted” by this challenge to the law.
“Of all the schools where there was going to be a problem, Burlington was probably not in the top 10 list of places where we thought somebody might be unaware of the law or ignore the law,” Donoghue said.
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Isn’t this rich, the students/parents and of course SevenDays all up in arms about possible 1st amendment violations not long after going out of their way to trash everyone’s 2nd amendment rights. Hippocracy really does know no bounds.
Hippocracy? You thinking of the Hippocratic oath, maybe?
The BHS principal is no more qualified to make journalistic decisions than I am to teach calculus. This is censorship, pure and simple, in violation of a state law his students helped to pass. The principal is a dope.
I know this is not exactly a constructive comment, but — if Green is looking to get fired for publicly visible ineptitude, he is doing a bang-up job. Not only did he vouch on public record for the competence of a staff membersubstantiated for multiple license violations — he has now managed to open the Burlington School District to a lawsuit for violating Vermont state law. The dude is cruising for a career bruising…
Is Principal Green a moron or a control- freak? There is no other possible choice. The only question now is NOT IF the school board will do what is required, but when?
Green is either insane or incompetent, and clearly has contempt both for the law and for free expression. It’s long past time for a thorough housecleaning in the Burlington schools.
(To FreedomToThink: you have freedom to think; now try using it.)
@FreedomTothink
I am sure the first thing the students will tell you is to stay on topic.
Green and Obeng will get a Hillary-Pass for violating the Law for all the obvious reasons
Dear 7D, VTDigger and BFP: Some sort of in-depth reporting on the crisis at BSD, and specifically BHS, is long overdue. I would start with the hiring of superintendent Obeng by Stephanie Seguino, followed by the punch-to-the-stomach demotion of Amy Mellencamp, followed by the rise and fall of Tracey Raicott, followed by the surprise appointment of Noel Green as Principal this summer, followed by the complete incompetence at so many levels with Mario Macias. And I’m sure this is just the tip of the iceberg at BHS. In addition to the guidance team, how many other teachers have left in the past few years?
And what about musical chairs at BHS Central Office? District-wide, how has the district administration changed during Obeng’s tenure? How many administrative positions have been added or deleted? How many people have “retired” or left, and how have their replacements been chosen? How much turnover has their been among leadership positions at individual schools?
The turmoil facing Burlington schools is not normal. While we all focus on the latest crisis, it would be extremely useful to take a long-term view of what got us into this mess in the first place. This is the kind of quality reporting that only Vermont news outlets can provide.
Dave S, I would add Commissioners Liz Curry, Lauren Berizbetia, Susan Marie Harrington, Kat Kleman, and Ryan Mclaren to the list of folks that have driven the district to the place it is. … the fish rots from the head.
Obviously Green doesn’t want to air the dirty laundry that happens at the school. He should also be placed on leave without pay
These are some of the best and brightest journalists I’ve seen, regularly breaking stories on important issues.
They have a teacher advisor. Why more oversight? The administration needs to listen more, vet more, and up its PR game.
Censoring the school newspaper isn’t the answer.
Don’t give an inch, kids . . .
Just create a Wordpress site and publish what you want online and email fellow students articles are up, nothing teachers can do about it. US Constitution Amendments are all important and should not be disrespected by a bunch of overly protective union members. Write what you want. SevenDays could even give the kids a weekly reporting space -let the teachers try to edit that
James Berry:
Teachers? I havent read a single reference or report that implicates teachers in censoring student reporting.
The union you probably mean is the BAA or Burlington Administrators Association – building administrators have their own bargaining unit whose negotiations go mostly unnoticed by the public at large while teachers unions get pilloried and demonized every negotiations cycle.
Dave S:
Youve hit the nail on the head! Well said, well suggested!