The student editors at Neshaminy High School’s The Playwickian are at odds with administration.
According to the students who run the award-winning high school newspaper, access to post content to The Playwickian’s website has been blocked after student editors decided not to publish the word “Redskin” in an article despite being directed to do so by the high school principal.
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The article at the center of the controversy revolved around Neshaminy’s Mr. Redskin competition. The debate was whether to publish the word “Redskin,” cited by a growing number of people as a racial slur against Native Americans, or use a redacted version of the term.
According to the student editors, they were directed by Principal Dr. Robert McGee to publish the article with the term “Redskin” following the author filing and winning an appeal to their decision to redact the word.
The Playwickian’s editor-in-chief, Tim Cho, published the article that included redacted “Redskin” terms on the newspaper’s WordPress site Tuesday at 4:28 p.m. Within an hour, the article was removed on orders from administration, according to managing editor Eishna Ranganathan, a senior at the high school.
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The student editors claim their decision not to publish the word “Redskin,” which also is the school’s mascot, was in accordance with following an editorial policy set forth in 2013.
Due to this week’s issue, all of The Playwickian student editors access to post and edit the site has been revoked.
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“I can understand why they removed the article because it was in reaction to the directive I received,” Cho said. “So essentially, I have just as much power as anyone else now. I can read articles only now. Essentially now we don’t have a website.”
The student account for the paper, according to Cho, appears to have been deleted and articles now feature a byline belonging to administration.
The article that caused the latest stir was more than a month old and some newspaper staff did not even wish to have it published for that reason.
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“Administration has not communicated with anyone from the paper,” Cho said Thursday evening.
District spokesman Chris Stanley released the following statement to LevittownNow.com Thursday afternoon:
The full staff of the Playwickian voted to use the Redskin name in a story about the Mr. Redskin contest 14-13. This version was then approved by Dr. McGee for publication. Another vote of just the Editorial Board was taken the next day and they voted 6-3 to redact the name. This version of the article was submitted for approval. Approval was withheld pending an appeal by the article author. Dr. McGee granted the appeal based on unclear Playwickian vote procedures and the usage of Redskins in the article. This decision was explained to the editors by the Playwickian adviser.
From Board Policy 600:
“Where any material or words, including the word “Redskins” is edited or deleted from an article or editorial submitted by a student, the student affected may appeal the decision to the Principal who shall have final authority in determining what material may be used in accordance with applicable law.”
According to procedures established last year, the Playwickian web site is managed by Neshaminy High School administrators and the Playwickian adviser, who are the only ones authorized to post and edit content there. Students with unauthorized access to the Playwickian web site posted the unapproved version of the story with the Redskin name redacted. Once discovered, this version was removed, and the passwords to the site were changed, to return the site administration back to previously-established guidelines. The home page of the site was briefly unavailable due to a technical problem related to these updates.
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Students began posting about the issue widely on social media Wednesday morning. Below is their statement:
A member of the Playwickian wrote an article with the name of the school mascot. The Editorial board voted to publish it on our website and edit the word as R——. Yesterday, we were given a directive to publish the article and not edit the word.
The editors who attended our after school meeting decided that the best course of action would be to follow our own policy of editing, and to publish the article with the word redacted.
However, an hour after posting, the article was removed from the website, and all student access to the admin panel was removed.
No further developments have been made.
“Once again censorship is lifting its ugly head under different student editors and has now escalated to compelling students to write content the principal wants published, not stories students have agreed to write and publish,” Jane Blystone, president of the Pennsylvania School Press Association, said in a statement posted online.
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Ranganathan said the issue has a parallel to the national attention that erupted when the editorial staff decided to ban use of the term “Redskin” in news articles. According to district Policy 600, the students editors are given the right redact the term or not publish stories that use it. Their decisions can be appealed and the principal has to review the newspaper before publication.
McGee likely found out about the article’s publication so quickly because he receives automated emails whenever content is published to the site, Ranganathan said.
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The article was placed in the May issue of The Playwickian, which is online only. The staff, according to Ranganathan, takes May to prepare for its popular June graduation print issue.
Going forward, the students hope to meet to discuss their next steps and possibly meet with administration.
“We met with the other editors; we wanted to see what everyone felt. The reaction was mild on whether they want to fight,” Cho said.
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Cho and Ranganathan said they have spoken with various student and journalism organizations and have received offers of support from lawyers.
“I stand with my editors and Tim on this issue. As editors, I believe we can say what can and can’t go into the publication,” Ranganathan said.
