School newspaper editor, adviser suspended for taking stand against mascot name
The editorial board of a high school newspaper in Langhorne, Pa., decided to stop using the name of the school's mascot in Oct. 2013.
The Neshaminy High School mascot is the same as that of the Washington NFL team, and the student journalists were among the first to do what The Washington Post and other news outlets have since done. The local Bucks County Courier Times also dropped the name from coverage of the school's sports.
The student editors and adviser received statewide awards for the decision. The school administration, though, doesn't seem to see it as exemplary. The issue came to a head when the editors refused to print a letter to the editor written by a school board member's son, who is also on the football team.
"He spoke of his r-word pride in detail, so we edited the mascot name to be R-----. Administration told us we must publish the newspaper with the full letter and mascot name," recalls editor-in-chief Gillian McGoldrick.
Instead, they left a blank space, adding an explanation that ended with, "This white space represents our resolve to maintain our rights as editors and our determination to eliminate discrimination."
In response, the school board passed a provision that allows the principal to censor aspects of the paper and blocks The Playwickian from editing the name out of not just editorials. Additionally, $1,200 was deducted from The Playwickian’s spending account, among other repercussions.
That was in June. Lawyers from the Student Press Law Center started helping out on a pro bono basis, but in recent weeks, the situation has reached "an entire new level of ridiculous," says McGoldrick.
Last week word spread that adviser Tara Huber was suspended for two days without pay and McGoldrick was suspended from the paper for the first month of this school year.
On Sept. 17, a group of student journalists from Ventura, Calif., started an IndieGoGo campaign to raise money for Huber’s docked pay as well as the lost $1,200. It had raised more than $5,200 as of Tuesday morning.
In an email to Prep Rally, district superintendent Robert Copeland didn't comment but pointed to a Bucks County Courier Times editorial that explained that for the sake of debate on the issue, the paper has not banned the word from opinion pages, and doesn’t think The Playwickian should, either.
That stance seems to miss the students’ point: Racial slurs are not printed in newspapers, whether in opinion sections or elsewhere, and it is time for this one to be treated the same way.
- - - - - - -
Danielle Elliot is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at delliot@yahoo-inc.com or follow her on Twitter!
