Story posted Thursday, January 28, 2010
Statesman To Call Up Rookies After Exodus
By TIM O'CONNOR Journal & Topics Reporter
Nine Stevenson High School students have dropped the class that produces The Statesman student newspaper following confrontations with school officials over content objections.
The resignations will delay the release of the paper's next issue, which was planned for Jan. 29, according to Stevenson spokesman Jim Conrey. He said he didn't know when the next issue would come out.
Superintendent Eric Twadell refused to return phone calls to the Journal & Topics Newspapers.
Among the students who dropped the class were Editor-in-Chief Pam Selman and Managing Editor Evan Ribot.
Selman and Ribot authored stories in November about alcohol use and teen pregnancy. School officials had problems with the use of anonymous sources and blocked the stories.
In December, school staff pulled another story because it included medical information about a student.
The incidents topped off a year in which The Statesman was marred in controversy. In January 2009 a story about teen sex led to more school oversight. Teacher Barbara Thill quit as the newspaper's adviser a few months later.
Conrey said the most recent resignations came as no surprise. He said all nine students were still taking the minimum of five classes and were on track to graduate. The students were given the option to take another class or have a free period.
The mass exodus has left four students in the class that produces The Statesman.
Conrey said students from a lower level journalism class would be pushed up to fill out the staff vacancies.
"They're sort of getting a semester head start," he said. "We're going to use their abilities to help get the paper out."
Conrey said the school's perspective was that the former Statesman staff did not have a good handle on the expectations for the course. He said administrators would clarify those expectations for the new staff.
He added that production schedules would be tweaked to give teachers more time to review articles.
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