By Michael Miner
“Among the teenage population of the city,” he replied, “I think it carries some truth.”
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The journalism adviser at another suburban Saint Louis school reacted less inanely to the decision. “I can’t think of any better program for developing critical thinking than journalism,” said Homer Hall of Kirkwood High (my old school, as it happens). “But if that’s taken away from students, and all high school journalism is about is reporting on the prom king and queen, we’ve lost the point of what education is all about.”
Words fine and true. But Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier merely protected the right of principals to shrink from conflict; it didn’t order them to. What teens need to learn is that journalism’s protean resilience is its ultimate strength. If you can’t tell the truth where you are, go somewhere else. If there’s no somewhere else, start something. Write on a wall if need be.
“The Catholic schools don’t like the content we have,” says Brooks. “It’s too racy for them. We talk about pregnancy and premarital sex and stuff that makes them go crazy. But we can’t not discuss things because it frightens people.”
These are devastating changes for a paper whose professionalism is what students like best about it. “We just had a change in the budget to just under $300,000 a year,” Brooks explained. “That’s about how much money we are raising. It had been at about the $375,000 level.”
What about asking the public schools for help? I wondered.
