On Oct. 11, 1999, an underground newspaper called The Lockdown was distributed at Nelsonville-York High School.
The student publication, which criticized school policies including a backpack ban, mandatory recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and mandatory attendance at pep rallies, caused a furor among administrators.
According to Post articles from that time period, the publication was banned, and school officials threatened to suspend students who published a second edition.
The big thing was profanity
said Mick McClelland, Nelsonville-York High School principal. They just didn't go about it right. If they would've written it in school maybe we could've put it in the school newspaper.
Since that time, there have been very few censorship issues of high school publications in Athens County.
The Lockdown continued to be distributed off school property at Nelsonville-York for the rest of the year but did not continue beyond that. The Buckeye Banner, the school's sanctioned paper, also stopped being published in that year.
The last year of The Lockdown was the last year of our newspaper there also so that might've had something to do with it disbanding
McClelland said.
Currently, Athens High School is the only area high school with a system of prior review in place for the school newspaper. Athens Principal Mike Meek reads a hard copy of the paper before every issue is printed.
There's nothing really we can do about it because (the system of prior review) has been in place
said Rebecca Glenn, Athens High School journalism teacher. I think that's a load of bunk
but that's what the Supreme Court has said.
The Supreme Court Case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier gave high school officials greater authority to censor school publications, according to the Web site for the Student Press Law Center (http://www.splc.org). However, the ruling did not apply to publications classified as public forums for student expression. It also required school officials to demonstrate a reasonable, educational justification for censorship.
Meek and Glenn both said the newspaper is a public forum for student expression
but they also said censorship is not the same thing as prior review, which is allowed under Hazelwood. Glenn said she would prefer not to have the system in place but did not want to raise a major challenge until she became more established in Athens High School.
(I haven't challenged the system) because I'd like to keep my job. Not that they would fire me
but teachers have lost jobs over less
Glenn said.
Meek said the prior review system has always worked out well in Athens High School.
There've been a couple of things that I've caught that they didn't realize that really could have caused harm or damage to an individual
Meek said. I don't do any censorship on opinions or anything like that.
Glenn agreed that Meek has never pulled anything for political reasons, and she said she would not hesitate to challenge it in court if a story was ever pulled for such reasons.
If they say no to an article
I am legally bound to take it out of the paper
