Scholastic journalists often
face demands like Delauter’s
by Mark Goodman
I strongly encourage every student publication adviser being told his or her students can’t use names or photos in their print or online publications because of FERPA (or some other manufactured privacy justification) to read the Frederick News Post’s editorial on this crazy Frederick County council member, Kirby Delauter, and his demand for media not to use his name without permission.
I strongly encourage every student publication adviser being told his or her students can’t use names or photos in their print or online publications because of FERPA (or some other manufactured privacy justification) to read the Frederick News Post’s editorial on this crazy Frederick County council member, Kirby Delauter, and his demand for media not to use his name without permission.
The parallels between this guy’s demand (now rescinded) and what many high school journalists experience is remarkable. How do you write about students at school and the public things they do there if you can’t identify them?
Washington Post blogger Eugene Volokh said it best (he’s quoted in the editorial):
Uh, Council Member: In our country, newspapers are actually allowed to write about elected officials (and others) without their permission. It’s an avantgarde experiment, to be sure, but we’ve had some success with it.” You know, that whole First Amendment thing.
Wish we could convey that message to more school officials and their attorneys.
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