Free-Press Debate Moot as Student Paper Flap Ends

Students and teachers at Cleveland High School gathered to debate freedom of the press before a lunchtime crowd of 400 Wednesday, but the exercise was purely academic. The free press dispute that that had divided the Reseda campus in recent weeks had already been resolved.

School administrators said they would allow students to continue publication of a controversial campus newspaper that last month sharply criticized the Reseda school’s math teachers.

From now on, however, the teen-age editors of The Forum, a self-described “alternative” monthly newspaper printed in Cleveland High’s graphic arts classroom, will have to submit their stories in advance to a faculty sponsor.

Students Welcomed Ruling

The ruling by Principal Kay Smith was welcomed by the students, who said they feared their 1-year-old newspaper would be put out of business. It also was greeted favorably by other Cleveland High teachers, who feared they might be the next to come under The Forum’s scrutiny if its publication were allowed unfettered.

The student editors triggered complaints at the school when they published an unsigned commentary late last month blaming low student scores on a mathematics achievement test on the “rampant ineptitude” of the school’s 15 math instructors. The article called the math department chairman “ineffectual” and labeled other math teachers “befuddled.”

The article set the 2,800-student campus abuzz, and sent math department head Bob Thompson hunting for a libel lawyer. But Thompson said Wednesday that he had decided it would serve no purpose to sue the paper’s young editors or the article’s author.

“Fortunately, no real damage was done, except to egos,” Thompson said. “I’m satisfied the kids have learned a great deal out of this. And so have we. We’ve learned you can’t dangle kids out by themselves and expect them to always make the right decisions.”

‘Unfortunate Incident’

Smith said Thompson had been “very generous in helping heal this unfortunate incident.” She said political science teacher Martha Kravchak would oversee future editions of The Forum and read over “all articles for the protection of the students.”

Forum editor Wade Novin, 16, said Kravchak has already begun her job. “She’s read over our next edition and changed only one word, a spelling error,” he said.

Novin acknowledged that Kravchak talked Forum editors out of printing an inflammatory letter about the math controversy in its next edition, however. “She said it would anger Mr. Thompson all over again. She was right. It was good advice,” Novin said.

Forum editors said the next edition of the paper would be printed today if a malfunctioning classroom press could be repaired. The issue will contain a letter supporting the math department and a statement by Novin that defends the need for a free press but “deeply apologizes for any hard feelings that resulted” from last month’s issue.

Heavy Turnout for Debate

The campus dispute was credited with generating a heavy turnout for Wednesday’s debate. In it, science teacher Marshall Goldman argued that “people’s reputations and lives can be destroyed in the name of freedom.” History teacher Mike Somers countered that limitations placed on such freedom lead to fascism.