MICHIGAN — When professional journalists at The Macomb Daily wanted to cover former Lake Shore School Districtsubstitute teacher Gary Kliebert’s arrest on child pornography charges, theyran a prominent news story about it. When the Lake Shore High School student newspaperstaff wanted to cover the same story, they ended up printing a black box withonly one sentence: “This article has been censored by Lake Shoreadministration.”
Superintendent Christopher Loria said the only draft of thestory he, Assistant Superintendent Frank Thomas or Principal Rich Bowers sawbefore press time had inaccurate information and was unprintable.
“There are some innocent people who are being hurt, and I’mnot talking about Gary Kliebert, but family members,” such as Kliebert’s wife,who is the acting principal of James Rodgers Elementary School, Loria said. “It’scalled compassion. It’s been in the paper two or three times now. Every time itcomes out, family members get hurt.”
When Andrew Wilson, editor in chief of The Shoreline, found out about Kliebert’s arrest, he said heimmediately thought it was an issue the student newspaper should cover. Staffreporter Emily Juszkowski wrote the story, which included facts previously reportedin the local Macomb Daily as well asinterviews with students.
“It is extremely relevant to LSHS because the sub has taughtin the district on many occasions,” Wilson said, adding that he believed Kliebertlast taught at Lake Shore High School four years ago.
Thomas, who was filling in as acting superintendent at thetime, could not be reached to comment for the newspaper’s story, Wilson said.He said his staff then removed parts of the story because they were unable toinclude the district’s response.
The reporter’s questions apparently tipped administratorsoff to the existence of the story and prompted them to stop it. Wilson said hesent several revised copies of the story to Bowers, Thomas and Loria, but nevergot confirmation they could go to print.
However, according to Loria, administrators never saw a copyof the article that did not contain the “inaccurate” information.
“Apparently there was a lot of miscommunication going onbetween students and The Macomb Daily,students and Frank Thomas, and some other miscommunications,” Loria said. “Thearticle that was supposedly rewritten was sent to Frank [Thomas] several times— well, turns out it was sent to Frank [DeFrank] of the Macomb Daily, not Frank Thomas.”
Wilson disputes Loria’s claim. He said newspaper staffers requestedthe emails they exchanged with administrators through the Illinois Freedom ofInformation Act, and “received the emails, but not the attachments, which werespecifically asked for.” Wilson said he believes they prove the revised articlewas sent.
The paper was supposed to go to press the next day, Friday,May 6. After consulting with the Student Press Law Center, staffers wrote Thomas thatper his request, they would not publish the article unless he told them byMonday morning that they could print it.
“On Monday, May 9, we came to class and there was no email,so we sent it to the printer with the black box,” Wilson said.
Since then, Loria has seen the updated version of thearticle and agreed that it was correct.
“It did have accurate information,” he said. “No newinformation, but accurate information.”
Even with the updated information, Loria said he still maynot have allowed the paper to print the story.
“I would probably have to consult our lawyer, but at thispoint I would lean towards not doing it and hurting more people over and overagain,” said Loria. “I wouldn’t expect them to be writing articles about theadministration or teachers or parents. There’s some information that doesn’tneed to be in the school paper.”
Wilson said students feel the decision was unfair and have soughtlegal counsel.
The controversy comes five years after the district revisedits policy on student publications. Student editors at the time said therevisions closed their “public forum” status – a designation that provides greaterFirst Amendment protection.
Lake Shore High School is also within the jurisdiction of aU.S. district court that has previously addressed the censorship of student publications.In 2004, the court rejected censorship of a story about school bus pollution byadministrators at nearby Utica High School.