Censorship Policy Draws Crowd at FDL School Board Meeting

Fond du Lac -

Students in Fond du Lac are protesting a new policy saying school administrators are trying to censor student publications.Monday nightthe issue was brought before the school board.

The policies were a response after the school's student written magazine published an article called "The Rape Joke."The story investigated the prevalence of rape jokes at the school and included anonymous stories from victims.Now the district says further articles must meet the approval of the principal, instead of a journalism advisor.

UW-Oshkosh Journalism Professor Vincent Filak said at the meeting, "What I ask of this board is to abandon this fruitless pursuit of control, and instead find a way to work with the students to create a reasonable set of guidelines that they themselves will hold themselves accountable to."

The meeting brought out students, teachers and members of various press clubs.However the superintendent says it's not the topic of the article he found offensive, it was actually some of the content.

"I had issues with, when I looked at the copy, a picture inside the first cover that looks as if one of our students isn't fully clothed. I had issues with some of the verbiage that was used to describe sexual assaults. In fact our own newspaper said they wouldn't use some of those words," said Dr. James Sebert, of the Fond du Lac School Dist.

Last Friday 16 teachers in the school's English department also signed a petition against the policy.

Tanvi Kumar, who wrote the article said, "I honestly hope we can start having a discussion. I don't think that we've discussed what we've needed to discuss yet, and I think it's about time we start doing something."

Since the policy was not on the agenda the school board did not take action or respond to public input.

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Censorship Policy Draws Crowd at FDL School Board Meeting