Freedom To Write: USA
News
Fullerton, California: Student Punished for Article
March 08, 2005
PEN USA is concerned because a high school student was fired from her school newspaper for writing an article which the school claimed violated privacy codes.
UPDATE: March 8, 2005
PEN USA is pleased to annouce the ACLU has thrown support behind Ann Long.
In a letter to the school, the ACLU asked that the incident be erased from Long’s record and the article be published. The state law cited by the school district about permission does not apply to this situation, says the ACLU. The state attorney general has maintained that no parental permission was needed. PEN USA is astonished the school district would try to silence Ann Long with unapplicable laws.
The letter from the ACLU was endorsed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Gay-Straight Alliance Network and the California Safe Schools Coalition.
January 27, 2005
Troy High School journalist Ann Long was told she must resign from her post as Editor-in-Chief of her school newspaper or she would be fired by January 27, 2005. Long, who is a senior and 18 years old, is being punished for a Dec. 17 article she wrote which chronicles the decisions of three students to reveal their homosexuality to family and friends. All three students (two 18 year-olds and a 15 year-old) spoke to Long by choice, knowing their names would be used.
However, after the article printed, Assistant Principal Joseph D’Amelia told Long she must resign or be fired, according to Long, to “make an example of myself for failing to do my job.”
D’Amelia directed all comments to Superintendent for Fullerton Joint Union High School District, Patricia Howell. Howell said Long was being punished for violating the section of the California state education code that prohibits asking students about their sexuality without parental permission. The code also applies to “personal beliefs, family life, morality and religion.”
Long claims her journalism teacher, Georgette Cerrutti, worked closely with her on the article for more than a month. While Cerrutti discussed the impact it might have on the students’ families, Cerrutti never told Long she might need to get the parent’s approval. However, after the article was published, Cerrutti was quick to admonish Long for not seeking parents’ permission.
PEN USA stands with experts who believe the education code should not be applied to fellow students.
“The school has no right to punish this student,” said lawyer Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Virginia. “A student has the right to talk about their private life, and a student journalist has the right to report on it. Ultimately, there are some things that are not within a school’s right to control.”
State Department of Education lawyer Michael Mersher said he has never heard of a school applying that section of the education code to a student. He cited another section of the code that places the responsibly on faculty advisers “to maintain professional standards of English and journalism” in school newspapers.
PEN USA stands behind Ann Long. As a student journalist, the education code cannot be applied to her. According to the same code, it was not Long’s responsibility, but Georgette Cerrutti’s, to make sure the California state codes were followed. The students profiled in Long’s article came to a fellow student to share their experiences, and Ann Long wrote about them. She should not be punished for being a journalist.
Stephen Rohde, First Amendment lawyer and Vice President of PEN USA’s Domestic Freedom to Write Program, says, “This student journalist is being made a scapegoat by the school authorities, including her teacher. The student did her job. She researched and wrote an important story on an important topic, all under the supervision of her teacher. If anyone fell down on the job it was her teacher. Although student journalists work under supervised circumstances, they still enjoy First Amendment rights. As the US Supreme Court said in the Tinker case, students do not check their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse door.”
Recommended Action:
Write Assistant Principal Joseph D’Amelia and/or Georgette Cerrutti pointing out their responsibly as faculty advisers, and the inappropriateness of punishing Ann Long:
Assistant Principal Joseph D’Amelia
Troy High School
2200 Dorothy Lane
Fullerton, CA 92831
Georgette Cerrutti
Troy High School
2200 Dorothy Lane
Fullerton, CA 92831
Why don’t you present the teacher’s side here?
Cerrutti asked Ann three times before the story went to press if she had gotten all of the parties’ permission to print the story. What do you suppose Ann told her three times? The issue here is lack of confidence in the student. Maybe Cerrutti didn’t explicitly “tell” Ann three times to get the permission of all parties three times, but she did ask her three times if she had. Is there a difference here? I suppose it depends on the definition of “is.” Ann was not “punished” for “being a journalist.” She was removed from her position because the teacher lost confidence in her. Stephen Rohde, you did not carefully research the issue. Mark Goodman, the student was not punished for writing about students’ private lives. The school and the advisor allowed her story to go to press. What’s at issue is a teacher’s right to remove a student who has not done as she was directed to do and has misrepresented herself to the teacher, not once but three times. Parents subsequently complained that they had not been consulted. The teacher understood that they had been. Why would you want a student to continue in the responsible position of co-editor who failed to follow the teacher’s directives and yet led the teacher to believe she had?
Parents did not complain - Students did not complain. If the issue was permission why did the advisor allow the story to be printed without seeing the written permission as is called for in the California Education code that has been cited?
Seems the student is being punished for the lapse in oversight on the part of the teacher.
i have completed high school in my country so want to feather my education out side of my country.
Talk about a smokescreen! How about getting ALL the facts?? It is a sad day in public education when a student leader can fail to tell the truth - not once but three times - to her faculty adviser, and yet, it is the teacher who is ultimately blamed. Now, who is REALLY being scapegoated here?? Anyone who knows anything about Orange County high school journalism knows that Georgette Cerrutti is the epitome of a professional educator, and the many students she has mentored are her best evidence of that - albeit with one notable exception.
I have one question here and it may sound remedial but who’s permission did Ann need to get? 2 of the students were 18 yrs old and legal adults so if they consented to the publishing of thier story then nuff said. The 3rd student being 15 is another matter “if” when Ann was asked if she got “all parties” permissions was she advised to get the parental consent? Or could she have understood “all parties” to mean the 3 students only? Unfortunatley from what is posted here teres not sufficient information to make a judgment faulting the student. If the instructor asked 3 times if Anne got the permission of all parties and Anne thinking “all parties” to mean the 3 students then Anne did not fail in her duties. Ultimatley the instructor should have verified that Anne had all proper releases or permissions needed. She should have made sure Anne understood all the requirments. Since Anne is in the care and custody of the school and the instructor is a representative of the school ultimatley anything Anna produces is the responsibility of the school.
One mans opinion as a former student of Troy High School
The student journalist has no constitutional right to print the article in question to expose the sexual proclivities of a 15 year old student and should be fired. The student journalist will probably go on to be a successful left wing nut in the media, ACLU, liberal tradition of anti-Christian, pro-gay, pro-abortion radicals that currently monopolize the verminous American media.