Mission Statement

Mission Statement:

The Current is a student publication designed to educate, entertain, and enlighten the Portland High School community through accurately reporting news that represents the concerns, interests, and needs of the student body in a global society.

Editorial Policy

STATEMENT OF POLICY

The Current is the official Portland High School newspaper, published by a staff of student journalists as a forum for student expression and as a medium for student voices. This medium will provide a full opportunity for students to inquire, question and exchange ideas. Produced in a workshop setting, the newspaper provides students with opportunities in developing skills in all areas of journalism including coverage and writing of news, features, sports and editorials, as well as in the business functions of a professional newspaper. Content will reflect all areas of student interest, including topics about which there may be dissent or controversy.

Student journalists shall have the right to determine the content of student media. Accordingly, the following guidelines relate only to establishing grounds for disciplinary actions subsequent to publication.

Responsibilities of Student Journalists

Students who work on The Current staff are responsible for the newspaper’s content. These students should:

l. Determine the content of the student media;

2. Strive to produce media based upon professional standards of accuracy, objectivity and fairness;

3. Review material to improve sentence structure, grammar, spelling and punctuation;

4. Check and verify all facts and verify the accuracy of all quotations; and

5. In the case of editorials or letters to the editor concerning controversial issues, determine the need for rebuttal comments and opinions and provide space therefore if appropriate.

EDITORIAL BOARD

Student editors make up the newspaper editorial or planning board, which makes decisions on content, coverage, scope and treatment of all newspaper content as it interests and concerns their primary audience of Portland High School students. The staff will be selected through a professional process of application, interviewing, and consulting references by the faculty newspaper adviser. Once selected, the staff will meet on a regular basis to conduct the organization and management of The Current. The adviser will serve as a consultant, but not as a voting member of the Editorial Board.

CONTENT

The Current will serve as an open forum for student opinion and ideas in the uninhibited, robust, free and open discussion of issues. The student staff members of The Current will strive to maintain high journalistic standards in the selection and reporting of newsworthy material in each issue. A staff meeting will be conducted prior to each issue to determine its content. Attention will be given to stories of interest and importance to the primary audience of students, with consideration given to the secondary audience of teachers, administrators, parents and community members. Final decisions regarding each issue’s content and format will be made by the editor-in-chief and members of the editorial board.

OPINION

The Current staff may publish a staff editorial in any issue which may not be by-lined, but will reflect the views of a majority of the student newspaper staff.

· Guest editorials are welcomed from the Portland High School community. These editorials should be submitted to the editor two weeks in advance of the publication date to be considered. All editorials, with the exception of the staff editorial will be by-lined with the author’s name and included on a page clearly dedicated to opinion.

· LETTERS TO THE EDITOR should not exceed 250 words in length and must be signed by the author, although the author’s name may be withheld upon request. Letters may be edited for length and grammatical or spelling errors. The author will be contacted to ensure the credibility of the submitted letter. Every effort will be made to contact the author prior to deadline if questions on content and credibility arise. There is no charge for a letter to the editor.

CORRECTION OF ERRORS

In the instance of a factual error, a correction may be made for the readers’ clarification in the following issue of The Current. A correction column will be included on the opinion page and will be clearly identified. Minor spelling errors or correction in the spelling of names will not be published unless clarification is needed for understanding. The newspaper staff will make every effort to be accurate and credible.

COVERAGE OF DEATHS

In the occurrence of a death of a student or staff member, The Current staff will publish an objective news story concerning the deceased individual’s school activities, survivors, memorials, and may include cause of death. Another story, related to the cause of death, is likely to be featured in the news or feature sections depending on the news value or impact of the information.

STYLEBOOK

The newspaper staff will follow the Associated Press (AP) Stylebook in the preparation of all copy, captions, and headlines.

Byline and Attribution Policy

All stories except the Staff Editorial will contain the name of the reporter in the byline. All photographs except head shots will contain photo credits. Credit will also be given to any article or photograph that is provided by an outside source for the newspaper’s use.

DISTRIBUTION

Newspapers will be distributed monthly or as scheduled on the publication schedule as posted in Room 140 of Portland High School. All students, faculty members, administrators and advertisers are entitled to a copy of The Current. The distribution staff will arrange to disseminate each issue and announcements will be made regarding locations of extra newspapers. As a courtesy, The Current is currently free of charge to the Portland High School community. The staff reserves the right to charge a reasonable fee for the newspaper if it becomes necessary.

Controversial Issues

The student staff members of The Current will practice high journalistic standards in dealing with the reporting of timely issues and controversial topics. The staff will strive to remain objective and balanced, and to deal with the facts and issues.

The following types of student expression will not be considered acceptable for publication in The Current:

1. Obscene material. According to Michigan statute chapter 752, section 362, “Obscene” means any material that meets all of the following criteria:

(a) The average individual, applying contemporary community standards, would find the material, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest.

(b) The reasonable person would find the material, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Profanity in itself is not considered obscene and may appear in The Current only in cases of a direct quote or where the profanity is imperative to the content of the story.

2. Libelous material. Libelous statements are provably false and unprivileged statements of fact that do demonstrated injury to an individual's or business's reputation in the community. If the allegedly libeled party is a "public figure" or "public official" as defined below, then school officials must show that the false statement was published "with actual malice," i.e., that the student journalists knew that the statement was false or that they published it with reckless disregard for the truth without trying to verify the truthfulness of the statement.
(a) A public official is a person who holds an elected or appointed public office and exercises a significant amount of governmental authority.
(b) A public figure is a person who either has sought the public's attention or is well known because of personal achievements or actions.
(c) School employees will be considered public officials or public figures in relationship to articles concerning their school-related activities.
(d) When an allegedly libelous statement concerns an individual who is not a public official or a public figure, school officials must show that the false statement was published willfully or negligently, i.e., the student journalist who wrote or published the statement has failed to exercise reasonably prudent care.
(e) Students are free to express opinions. Specifically, a student may criticize school policy or the performance of teachers, administrators, school officials and other school employees.

3. Material that will cause "a material and substantial disruption of school activities."
(a) Disruption is defined as student rioting, unlawful seizures of property, destruction of property, or substantial student participation in a school boycott, sit-in, walk-out or other related form of activity. Material such as racial, religious or ethnic slurs, however distasteful, is not in and of itself disruptive under these guidelines. Threats of violence are not materially disruptive without some act in furtherance of that threat or a reasonable belief and expectation that the author of the threat has the capability and intent of carrying through on that threat in a manner that does not allow acts other than suppression of speech to mitigate the threat in a timely manner. Material that stimulates heated discussion or debate does not constitute the type of disruption prohibited.
(b) For student media to be considered disruptive, specific facts must exist upon which one could reasonably forecast that a likelihood of immediate, substantial material disruption to normal school activity would occur if the material were further distributed or has occurred as a result of the material's distribution or dissemination. Mere undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough; school administrators must be able affirmatively to show substantial facts that reasonably support a forecast of likely disruption.
(c) In determining whether student media is disruptive, consideration must be given to the context of the distribution as well as the content of the material. In this regard, consideration should be given to past experience in the school with similar material, past experience in the school in dealing with and supervising the students in the school, current events influencing student attitudes and behavior and whether there have been any instances of actual or threatened disruption prior to or contemporaneously with the dissemination of the student publication in question.
(d) School officials must protect advocates of unpopular viewpoints.
(e) "School activity" means educational student activity sponsored by the school and includes, by way of example and not by way of limitation, classroom work, official assemblies and other similar gatherings, school athletic contests, band concerts, school plays and scheduled in-school lunch periods.

Legal Advice

1. If, in the opinion of a student editor, student editorial staff or faculty adviser, material proposed for publication may be "obscene," "libelous" or would cause an "immediate, material and substantial disruption of school activities," said material will be modified or omitted.

2. If the proposed material is questionable, the legal opinion of a practicing attorney should be sought. The services of the attorney for the local newspaper or the free legal services of the Student Press Law Center (703/807-1904) are recommended. Any legal fees charged in connection with the consultation will be paid by the board of education.

3. The final decision of whether the material is to be published will be left to the student editor or student editorial staff.

Advertising

The Current will accept advertising, except for products or services that are illegal for all students. The staff reserves the right to reject any advertisement that, in the opinion of the editorial board, is false, misleading, harmful, or not in the best interest of Portland High School students. Ads for political candidates and ballot issues may be accepted; however in fairness and balance, The Current will solicit ads from all sides on such issues.

On-Line publication and Use of Electronic Resources

1. On-Line Student Media.
On-line media, including the school’s Internet Web sites, e-mail, listserves and Usenet and Bitnet discussion groups, may be used by The Current staff like any other communications media to reach both those within the school and those beyond it. The on-line publication of The Current is entitled to the same protections and is subject to no greater limitations than the printed media, as described in this policy.

2. Electronic Information Resources
Student journalists may use electronic information resources, including Internet Web sites, e-mail, listserves and Usenet and Bitnet discussion groups, to gather news and information, to communicate with other students and individuals and to ask questions of and consult with sources. Students should apply the same internet and computer usage guidelines as they would in any school related project at PHS. Such guidelines may address the following issues: file size limits, password management, system security, data downloading protocol, use of domain names, use of copyrighted software, access to computer facilities, computer hacking, computer etiquette and data privacy.

Censorship Statement

The staff of The Current strongly supports the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. Therefore, it opposes censorship in any form. In practicing the freedoms outlined by the First Amendment, the student staff members of The Current also recognize the inherent responsibilities therein.

PRIOR RESTRAINT

The Current is NOT reviewed by school administrators prior to distribution or withheld from distribution. The school assumes no liability for the content of any student publication, and urges all student journalists to recognize that with editorial control comes responsibility, including the responsibility to follow professional journalism standards each school year.