Social media accounts for Neshaminy High School’s newspaper, The Playwickian, have been taken down.
The accounts, which were active and posting as of last week, were down on Tuesday. A student editor tweeted that access to the accounts by students was taken away late last week.
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“I simply asked the Advisor on Wednesday morning to change the passwords and be responsible for monitoring the accounts during the summer months. Recent graduates and existing editors have administrative access to each account, technically permitting someone to change a password and lock the adults out,” Neshaminy High School principal Dr. Robert McGee said in a statement released Tuesday. “Given the events of the previous week, I thought it wise to ‘close the barn door’ for the time being. The advisor ultimately chose to shut down the Twitter and Facebook accounts instead of just changing the passwords as directed.”
The move by district administration comes shortly after the students went and printed the final issue of the school year without final approval from the school district. The issue went to print without publishing a letter mentioning the embattled mascot for the high school, which could cause legal issued for the district down the line.
Following the production of the newspaper, which was paid for by the district, members of the high school’s administration reportedly removed copies. The following day at graduation, the copies were available to the public.
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The students’ fight over the use of the word “Redskin” has been backed by pro-bono legal counsel and letters to the school board from the Society of Professional Journalists and other groups.
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Here’s the full statement by McGee:
I would like to take the opportunity to set the record straight on the issues involving the NHS newspaper’s internet accounts at Neshaminy High School. Obviously, I am unable to comment on the pending HRC complaint, staff issues and student discipline. However, after graduation, I took note that graduated seniors and underclassmen on the Playwickian Editorial Staff still had administrative access to: 1) The Playwickian.com website; 2) the Gmail Account used to send the newspaper to the printer forprinting; 3) The Playwickian Twitter Account; and 4) the Playwickian Facebook Page. Each of these internet elements are accounts passed from year to year to the next group of editors by their advisor. Moreover, the Gmail account was the one used to order the unauthorized printing
I simply asked the Advisor on Wednesday morning to change the passwords and be responsible for monitoring the accounts during the summer months. Recent graduates and existing editors have administrative access to each account, technically permitting someone to change a password and lock the adults out. Given the events of the previous week, I thought it wise to ‘close the barn door’ for the time being. The advisor ultimately chose to shut down the Twitter and Facebook accounts instead of just changing the passwords as directed.
Rob McGee, Ph.D.
Principal
Neshaminy High School
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