Errors lead to extra supervision of Stevenson student paper

More oversight will be provided to Stevenson High School's award-winning student newspaper to address what administrators contend is poor reporting and inadequate balance.

Jim Conrey, a spokesman for Lincolnshire-based Stevenson District 125, said the Statesman's problems this year have included factual errors and not representing all viewpoints in stories.

Conrey said newspaper content in the past calendar year, including topics ranging from oral sex to suicide, isn't the issue. He said administrators will be more involved because students receive grades in their journalism classes and must learn accuracy and fairness in their work on the paper.

"There is more to being a good journalist than writing well," Conrey said.

Stevenson teacher Barbara Thill, who didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday, is the Statesman's sponsor and has had the final word before the paper goes to press. Jordy McNamara, the Statesman's managing editor of content, declined to comment.

However, an expert in high school press censorship issues says school administrators are making a mistake requiring prior review of the paper because it shows a lack of trust in the students.

Stevenson's journalism program received multiple awards from the Northern Illinois Scholastic Press Association in April 2008. Editorial writing and in-depth reporting were among the awards the Statesman received.

Beginning with the Statesman's next edition, which comes out in a week or so, communication arts program director David Noskin will review the stories after Thill. Noskin said the primary goal is to ensure proper balance in stories before going to print.

"My role is to help the students deal with the difficult decisions they have to make when dealing with issues that are controversial," he said.

Administrators decided extra review was needed after what they say was continued reporting problems that surfaced most recently in a Jan. 30 story about teens preferring to sexually "hook up" over traditional dating.

Conrey said the story failed to provide viewpoints to counter those of semi-anonymous students who said hooking up is a typical part of teenage life and isn't a big deal. At the very least, Conrey said, a reporter could have talked to a Stevenson health education teacher.

Administrators also questioned an anonymous junior boy's account apart from the main story, which detailed how he sought a hookup at a basement gathering with a timeline running from 9 p.m. to past 1 a.m.

Conrey said the timeline was considered irresponsible and a potential "how-to guide" for predators to sexually exploit Stevenson students, particularly females. Conrey added the account didn't have news value.

Randy Swikle, Illinois director of the Journalism Education Association, said Stevenson is on a path to censoring a paper that's received national acclaim. It's an editor's job - not an administrator's - to determine if balance is achieved in a story, he said.

"You show you have a lack of respect for the student journalists," said Swikle, who noted the Statesman has won the National Press Association's Pacemaker award - the equivalent of a Pulitzer Prize for high school papers.

Questions by school officials about the accuracy of Statesman stories started in April and May 2008, when a different group of students worked on the publication. Conrey said problems were found in stories about an anonymous junior claiming to sell drugs at the school, and purported e-mail misuse by teachers.

"In our mind," Conrey said, "this is a curriculum issue."

Stevenson board President Bruce Lubin supported the administration's move. He stressed no one is trying to censor the paper.

"It's educating the kids on the appropriate way to produce a paper," Lubin said. "We're not here to suppress."

About 3,400 copies of the Statesman are distributed by hand to students when they enter school on the day it comes out, Conrey said. Leftover copies are placed in open bins in the school.

Extra supervision has been ordered in other classes in the past when administrators became concerned instructors' methods, officials said.