Newseum presents 3rd annual Courage in Student Journalism Awards
05.25.00
ARLINGTON, Va. — The Newseum, the interactive museum of news, today announced the recipients of its third annual Courage in Student Journalism Awards, which are presented to school officials and student journalists. Student winners are journalists who have shown determination, despite difficulty and resistance, in exercising their First Amendment press rights. School administrators are selected on the basis of demonstrated support, under difficult circumstances, for the First Amendment press rights of their schools' student media.
This year's winners are Marina Hennessy, a junior at Avon High School in Avon, Ind., and Henry L. Caudle, principal of Davenport Central High School in Davenport, Iowa. The awards were presented today at a luncheon at the Newseum. Hennessy and Caudle each received a check for $5,000.
"We recognize that an active student press is a two-way street, borne out of a mutual respect between student journalists and an appreciative school administration," said Joe Urschel, senior vice president and executive director of the Newseum, at the awards presentation. "This is why the Newseum's Courage in Student Journalism Awards honor a student and an administrator, because as any school newspaper adviser can tell you, the student press cannot do its job effectively if the school administration will not allow it to."
Hennessy, a 17-year-old high school junior, received her award for exposing hazing practices by her school's football team, ranked No. 3 in the state at the time. Her carefully researched article, which appeared in the school's newspaper, Echo, quoted players who described beatings with objects ranging from tennis balls in socks to belts, electrical cords and chairs. When asked for comment, the school's athletic director downplayed the hazing incidents and accused Hennessy and the paper's staff of negative journalism. He later asked that the article be held until after the football playoffs. Although the student newspaper's faculty adviser, Pam Essex, met with the school's principal to defend the paper's right to run the story, the principal ordered that the story be pulled. After Essex informed the principal that Hennessy intended to take the story directly to the school board and the Indianapolis Star, the principal allowed the story to be printed, but only if Hennessy substituted the coach's original comments in the article with a prepared statement. The article ran in the Echo with an editor's note informing readers that school officials had censored the article. Local media picked up the story, and the football coach and principal have announced that they will take steps to stop the hazing.
Caudle received his award for his strong pro-student stance on the controversial issue of Internet filtering and freedom of information. After the Davenport Community School District placed Internet filters of equal strength on all computers for students from kindergarten to 12th grade, student journalists at Davenport Central High School realized that the filters were censoring information needed for their research. They took their concerns to Caudle, who actively supported the students' efforts to publicize and protest the censorship through articles in the school paper, public service announcements, petitions and rallies. Despite pressure from his superiors to silence the students and stop the protests, Caudle publicly backed the students' activities and attended the national convention of the Journalism Education Association to find out more about the problem of Internet censorship. With Caudle's support, student journalists from two area high schools worked together to convince the school board to change its policy on Internet filters, and the district now provides an unfiltered computer in the library and journalism office of each of the district's high schools.
The Courage in Student Journalism Awards are sponsored by the Newseum, which is funded by The Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan, international foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. As The Freedom Forum's largest public outreach program, the Newseum seeks to educate its visitors about the importance of First Amendment rights in a free society. The Newseum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is closed Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's days. Admission is free.
Media contact: Ann Rauscher, 703/284-3713
EDITORS: To receive digital images of award winners Marina Hennessy and/or Henry Caudle from today's presentation ceremony, please call or e-mail Ann Rauscher at 703/284-3713 or arauscher@freedomforum.org with your e-mail address and photo size/resolution specifications.