Tag: Fall 2000

IOWA -- Colleges and universities not willing to loosen their hold on campus crime statistics may be forced to loosen their purse strings to pay steep fines if a ruling by the Department of Education is allowed to stand.

Mount St.

TEXAS -- A high school senior barred from attending his own graduation agreed to a $150,000 settlement with his school district in May.

Former Midland High School student Casey Riggan was not allowed to go to his graduation after he refused to turn over a photograph taken of his principal's car outside a female teacher's house over a year ago.

ARIZONA -- An ad hoc student newspaper advisory committee at Yavapai College claims it is seeking to upgrade the standards of the school's newspaper, but the paper's former editor thinks the college president is trying to gain editorial control over the paper after the publication of several controversial articles.

Editors at The Rough Rider received a memo announcing the formation of the committee to establish more comprehensive guidelines and professional standards.

MISSOURI -- In a lawsuit filed in January, a Kansas City television station claims that the University of Missouri system's board of curators and some university administrators are in violation of the state's Sunshine Law for not providing a reporter with access to information regarding crimes that occurred on Missouri campuses between 1996 and 1999.

Attorney Jean Maneke, representing WDAF/Fox 4, said the requested records are from campus disciplinary hearings dealing with crimes of violence and nonforcible sex offenses, but that the newly released FERPA guidelines do not affect the case.

CALIFORNIA -- An article on sex education in the Granite Bay High School student newspaper caused one group of parents and at least one school board member to question the First Amendment rights of student journalists.

The Granite Bay Gazette published an article in April detailing how little some high school students know about their own bodies.

Student editors decided to publish the story after a new state education law took effect Jan.

ILLINOIS -- Members of the Des Plaines cable commission are seeking to develop obscenity standards for local public-access cable stations after a Harper College student's television program offended some citizens.

The sometimes vulgar and profane "Static Experience" is broadcast after-hours by AT&T-owned Channel 35, which currently imposes no editorial restrictions on its programs.

TENNESSEE -- The state's campus crime reporting code was amended in February to require colleges to report all felonies and Class A misdemeanors committed on campus to appropriate local law enforcement agencies.

The act goes beyond current federal laws, which require only that schools include such incidents in their police logs.

CALIFORNIA -- Five students filed lawsuits against the Los Angeles Unified School District in June challenging the punishments they received for their involvement with an underground newspaper.

In total, 11 Palisades High School students were suspended and four others transferred for their involvement with the Occasional Blow Job, a controversial underground newspaper that insulted teachers, students and administrators and used profane language.

As a result of the suspensions, approximately 300 students staged a walk-out to show support for the newspaper and the students involved.

According to court documents, school administrators said the students involved with the newspaper and walk-out were punished for contributing "to unauthorized material which caused disruption on the high school campus."

For Jeremey Meyer, that contribution was an e-mail he never intended to be published.

Meyer, a senior at Palisades and one of the four students who was forced to transfer to another district high school, filed a lawsuit asking the court to allow him to return to Palisades.

U.S.

UTAH -- It happened over a year ago, but student editors at the University of Utah's Daily Chronicle believe the so-called 'Huntsman affair' is still impacting their newspaper in significant ways.

In August of 1999, former Chronicle editor Dave Hancock wrote a column criticizing the appointment of Karen Huntsman to the state's board of regents because of her lack of a college degree.

Huntsman's husband, Jon, a multi-millionaire and one of the university's major donors, was outraged by the column and threatened to withhold all future funding unless Hancock printed an apology, said current Chronicle editor Shane McCammon.

With over $400 million hanging in the balance, and after extreme pressure from the school's administration, the editor was persuaded.

Hancock published an apology for any personal offense the column caused but stuck by the view shared by he and his staff that there were flaws in the appointment of Mrs. Huntsman.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Current and potential students should soon have easy access to campus crime statistics through a Department of Education online database.

Officials from the DOE began compiling campus crime statistics from colleges and universities in August for collection in the database, which will give students the opportunity to view crime information from colleges and universities around the nation in one place.

The DOE will present the data to Congress in December.