ELHS newspaper to be controlled by student editors

EAST LANSING – Student editors at East Lansing High School will have more control over what goes into their newspaper following a unanimous vote on Monday by the school board.

Board president Nell Kuhnmuench said the board first learned that East Lansing High School principal Coby Fletcher had been reviewing every issue of the student paper before it went to print when former editor Evan Hoopingarner, a 2015 ELHS graduate, presented a letter during a May board meeting complaining of the practice.

In the letter, Hoopingarner and co-editor Stefan Lindahl wrote that the paper had made an error in an article published in October. Teachers had been working without a contract, and a student writer incorrectly wrote that teachers were not being paid.

Despite a retraction, a correction and an apology, Fletcher’s response was to insist on approving articles before publication, the former editors wrote. In the months that followed, Fletcher removed words such as “beer” and “sex” from stories and in one case removed an entire quote from a student, they said, adding that he had also pressured them to change an editorial.

“We want to ensure that we pass on to future Portrait writers a system that allows student journalists to have a good experience that enables them to explore and engage the student body in various issues that affect our community knowing that that they are writing for the student newspaper, not for an administrative bulletin,” Hoopingarner and Lindahl concluded.

In a Aug. 10 presentation to the board, Fletcher told trustees “I see no reason to continue to request prior administrative review given a new slate of editors and a fresh start to the school year ... I see no reason to interfere in their work.”

Fletcher said the paper has to this point been considered a limited public forum, which means stories may be reviewed if there is a legitimate educational interest in doing so. The fact that the newspaper receives school funding, has a staff adviser and has some academic interest are other factors.

Fletcher’s memo also notes the newspaper was associated with a journalism class from 2005 to 2010, and there is some discussion of reviving a class and reintegrating the newspaper. Ideally, Fletcher told the board, the curriculum would include emphases on both broadcast journalism and digital media.

Fletcher did not attend Monday’s meeting, and did not immediately respond to phone and e-mail messages on Tuesday.

With some consideration given to reviving a journalism class, Kuhnmuench said some board members believed there should be an opportunity to evaluate that possibility as a change in the high school curriculum. Such a class is still under consideration.

The decision by the school board is welcome news to the Portrait’s co-editors, junior Sophie Steiner and senior Hudson Brett, both of whom were on the staff last year.

“I’m really happy with that. It’s nice to have that completely cleared up, in the legal definition of open forum,” Steiner said.

“We never have to deal with that sort of thing again, at least not during our run.”

“This is something specific that we’re very happy to have,” Brett added, “because no one can interpret it differently.”

Contact Dawn Parker at 517-377-1056 or dlparker@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter at @arwen22266.