The usually mundane Neshaminy School Board Policy Committee meeting was heated at times Tuesday evening.
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Supporters of the student editors of Neshaminy High School’s The Playwickian newspaper gave the committee a piece of their mind on proposed Policy 600, which was introduced after the high school newspaper’s student editors made a pledge not a print the word ‘Redskin.’
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The board voted to table the policy and keep discussing it.
In the end, both sides said they made “forward progress” and are arraigning a time to meet face-to-face.
Editor-in-Chief Gillian McGoldrick told LevittownNow.com she was glad the board agreed to meet with the student editors to discuss the policy.
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“There is so much here (at the committee meeting) that we didn’t get to. Hopefully we can get to sit down we can talk over it all,” she said.
A revised policy was presented to the board on Tuesday night but was not immediately made public. District lawyer Mike Levin said he wanted to give district officials time to review it first.
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The topics discussed during more than two-hour-long meeting covered a variety of issues. Some of the longer discussions focused on the amount of time the students have the paper to turn a draft over to the principal for review prior to publication, social media use, the job of student journalists and constitutional rights of students.
Both sides interrupted each other during points in the meeting. Committee chair Irene Boyle stood up and one point and asked the audience to refrain from personal attacks. Her statement was spurred by comments from an adult and not any of the dozen or so students who attended.
District resident Donna Boyle, who is part Native American and has petitioned the board to drop the Redskin name for several years, was at the meeting. She spoke several times about the offensive nature of the term and was cut off by the committee at one point for being off-topic and not discussing the proposed policy.
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Levin, who has been hired to deal with the case, ruffled some people in the audience when he made a joke some took to be anti-semitic. Levin was asked how to pronounce his name and he said it would be Levin “when I make more money.”
“It’s a shame when you lose your sense of humor,” he said after the audience called him out on the apparent anti-semitic joke. Levin declined to explain the meaning of the joke after the meeting.
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The students’ fight against the policy has been backed by pro-bono legal counsel and letters to the school board from the Society of Professional Journalists and other groups.
Student newspaper editor Michael Li came from Conestoga High School in Berwyn to hear about the issue. He spoke how their school’s newspaper operates separately and fears a policy by Neshaminy could impact student newspapers across the state.
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No date for the next policy meeting has been set.
Related:
- Controversial Neshaminy Policy Going Back to Committee
- Neshaminy Board Hears Public Comment on Revised Policy
- Neshaminy Board Moves ‘Redskin’ Policy Vote on Heels of Letter from Lawyer Representing Students
- Neshaminy Lawyer: Editors Can’t Stop Students from Using Redskin Name
- Neshaminy Mulls Blocking Student Paper Ban on ‘Redskins’ Name
- Neshaminy Board Prez: Redskins Name Not a Slur
- Dump the Redskins Nickname, Neshaminy Student Newspaper Says
- School Paper Editors Win Award for ‘Redskins’ Op-Ed
- Webb Reacts to Being Named Among ‘Worst Persons in the Sports World’
