Student, principal stand up for school media

05.30.98

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Last year Dan Vagasky, then the 14-year-old editor of his middle school newspaper in Otsego, Mich., approved a story on a student shoplifter that, he thought, wouldn't "amount to much." He was wrong.

The story led to a confrontation when school officials killed the story; it led to the school's newspaper adviser leaving her job; and it led to a lawsuit filed by Vagasky against school administrators.

But Vagasky's yearlong struggle, as he says, to "just tell the truth," also led to his receiving the Newseum's new Courage in Student Journalism Award on April 14.

Vagasky and Phillip F. Gainous, principal of Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, Md., were the award's first recipients. The award will be given annually to students for determination, despite difficulty and resistance, in exercising First Amendment press rights. School administrators will be selected for demonstrated support, under difficult circumstances, for the First Amendment rights of student media.

For Vagasky, the controversy began when the school newspaper, the Bulldog Express, prepared to run a story based on a police report about a student who shoplifted during a school trip. The story did not use the student's name because she was a juvenile.

But school officials killed the story, though acknowledged it was accurate. They later shut down the newspaper. The newspaper's faculty adviser resigned after her advisory responsibilities were taken away and her hours reduced.

With the help of a lawyer, Vagasky sued in federal court. An out-of-court settlement, awaiting school board approval, mandates that stories cannot be rejected simply because they might portray the school district in a negative light.

Principal Gainous also found himself in opposition to school officials. His students produced "Shades of Grey," a television program that included a discussion of same-sex marriage. But the school superintendent refused to allow the program to air.

Gainous, convinced of the program's integrity, supported students when they called news conferences and staged protests over the superintendent's decision. "I learned a lot from these young people," Gainous said. "They are serious journalists. Sometimes adults are frightened when students appear more intelligent than they are. Instead of putting restrictions on them, we should ... help them handle their responsibilities and give them the freedom to fly."

The Montgomery County School Board eventually sided with Gainous and the students, and the program was broadcast on the county cable system's educational channel in May 1997. But the board has drafted regulations that would lower the threshold for censorship. Students are challenging the proposed rules.

The Courage in Student Journalism Awards included a $5,000 check for Vagasky. Gainous' school received $5,000 to support journalism programs.

For more information, call Judy Hines at 703/284-3720.

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