Schools

Sprayberry Principal Must OK Paper Content

After the firestorm of controversy that resulted from an April Fool's edition of "The Stinger," the Cobb County School District has taken action against further incidents.

In a move stemming from the publication of an April Fool's edition of a student-run newspaper that called President Barack Obama "a Nazi," the has ordered that all journalistic content must be approved by the school's principal.

's newspaper "The Stinger" became a lightning rod for controversy in April, when it .

Some of the reasons were, "because his dog is ugly," "he's a Nazi," and, "he's black."

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The Marietta Daily Journal quoted a letter school superintendent Dr. Michael Hinojosa wrote to the Cobb County NAACP outlining his decision.

“We don’t want to censor (the journalism students) but we want to make sure the principal has ownership and has understanding of what’s going out and for there not to be any surprises,” Hinojosa wrote. “It’s a fine line and we did consult with our legal counsel about how to do it … because of how politically volatile, how it really upset the campus, we want to make sure that the principal is aware of that (content).”

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Does the subordination of the student-run newspaper to the school principal amount to censorship? Tell us in the comments!


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