LITTLE ROCK, Ark. | A school district representing a northwest Arkansas high school that suspended its student newspaper after it published an article alleging improper transfers by football players said Monday that district administrators are “reviewing the issue.”
Springdale District spokesman Rick Schaeffer also said that the district was not involved in the school’s decision to suspend the publication.
Har-ber High School in Springdale, about 150 miles northwest of Little Rock, killed the Har-ber Herald’s publication after students spent a month investigating the transfer of five Har-ber football players to a different district high school. The Har-ber Herald reported at least two of them acknowledged that they transferred to have a better chance of playing football, which would be a violation of district policy.
Schaeffer did not speak to whether the article had false information or misrepresented facts. In a statement, district superintendent Jim Rollins called the article “intentionally negative, demeaning, hurtful and potentially harmful to the students” as well as “divisive and disruptive” to the school’s community. But Rollins did not dispute the article’s allegations.
The district has ordered the paper’s adviser, teacher Karla Sprague, to remove the story from its website, and the article has been taken down. Har-ber principal Paul Griep told the paper’s adviser that nothing could be published until new guidelines were created.
Student Press Law Center Executive Director Hadar Harris said the school’s actions amount to censorship. Harris and journalists from the student newspaper were in Chicago at a conference when the school called for the article to be removed. The center advises student reporters on various legal and ethical journalistic issues, Harris said, from libel and copyright law to censorship.
“Everyone is hoping that the school district will review the situation and revise their decision,” Harris said. She called on the school and the district to re-publish the article, reinstate the paper and eliminate review guidelines, saying that if the district doesn’t take those steps, “the students may decide to pursue legal action.”
