Freedom of Press Examined Across Prepatory Schools
In an effort to better understand freedom of press within the private high school setting, The Exonian has examined the policies and practices of several weekly newspapers of peer schools, including The Phillipian (Phillips Academy Andover), The Deerfield Scroll (Deerfield Academy) and The Lawrence (The Lawrenceville School). While all three serve as the official student-run newspapers of their respective schools, only The Phillipian maintains a truly uncensored status; The Scroll and The Lawrence are subject to prior review by their faculty advisors.
The bylaws of The Exonian are closely aligned with those of The Philippian, as both state that the newspaper is not subject to prior review, prior restraint or censorship. While Exeter’s publication guidelines dictate that the advisor assumes ultimate responsibility over the publication, The Exonian and The Phillipian by-laws both maintain that all final editorial decisions rest with the editor-in-chief. Thus, advisors to The Exonian and to The Philippian serve primarily to help and guide student editors, rather than to censor. However, whereas The Exonian gives some articles to its advisors to read and provide suggestions prior to publication, The Philippian does not.
According to Alexa Tsay, Executive Editor of The Phillipian’s Editorial Board, the role of their two advisors is limited to answering questions and providing help to the student editors. “On weeknights they come in and answer questions that we have and just help us out,” she explained. However, she emphasized that “just like any other reader, they only see the paper once it has been printed.”
“We always try to publish articles that are interesting to our readership and not in any way to invade an individual’s privacy.”
Tsay also noted that The Philippian is lucky “because our headmaster is really supportive of free press. [The administration] have never threatened to take that away or to take disciplinary action when they see something they don’t like,” she said.
Susan Yun, a news editor at The Phillipian, agreed. “They [the administration] respect that we are an uncensored paper and they let us have that freedom,” Yun said. During her time on the board, she has never been instructed by the administration not to publish certain content. Yun further explained that the paper’s advisors “have never acted as a medium between us and the administration.”
Contrastingly, both The Scroll and The Lawrence must submit all articles for review by their faculty advisors before going to press. However, Editor-in-Chief of The Scroll Perry Hamm described this as “a collaborative process” rather than censorship. She stressed that most of the time, the two advisors are “there to edit and not to say yes or no to articles.” If the advisors were to have a concern about an article, Hamm continued, they would work together with the student editors to address it.
The Lawrence also has two faculty advisors who help the student editors make decisions regarding content and editing. Editor-in-Chief Michael Zhao acknowledged that this compromises the independence of the newspaper, given that the advisor must read through every article before it goes to press. Nevertheless, he explained that the only time the advisors have exercised their right to prevent publication of content has been when they believe it could bring harm to the community or result in disciplinary action against the editors. In general, he continued, “they give us complete freedom to cover whatever we want and to tackle controversial topics.”
Zhao noted that the administration only becomes involved in the paper in cases where the content revealed could harm students or damage the school’s reputation. “In instances like those they do have the final say but everything else they kind of defer to us,” he said.
According to Tsay, The Phillipian’s own awareness of privacy issues renders this type of censorship unnecessary. “If we were ever to be in a scenario when the privacy of a student would be exposed in the article, I think the board ourselves would be conscious of protecting the student body because we want to report on what’s happening without harming anyone. This would be the job of the board, so hopefully it wouldn’t have to reach the administration,” she explained. “We always try to publish articles that are interesting to our readership and not in any way to invade an individual’s privacy,” Tsay added.
Likewise, Hamm felt that the board of The Scroll would not publish content that would potentially infringe on someone’s privacy, particularly regarding cases of sexual misconduct. “I personally would feel very uncomfortable publishing a sexual misconduct case that involves a student still at the school regardless of whether they were willing to be featured or not,” she said.
Given the sensitivity of reporting on issues such as these, editors from The Philippian, The Scroll and The Lawrence expressed hesitancy to cover them. The Philippian has tried to focus on news articles about “trends and student concerns rather than all news,” according to Tsay. However, The Exonian has sought to continue reporting in an accurate and sensitive way on even those issues which raise questions of privacy, in the hopes of keeping readers informed while also upholding high standards of journalistic ethics.