High School Paper Adviser Resigns After Controversial Hook-Up Issue

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 1, 2009 9:50PM

The adviser for the Stevenson High School newspaper will resign the post after changes were made to the program due to fall-out from the controversial sex issue that set tongues wagging a few months ago. While Barbara Thill will remain at the school as a full-time English teacher, she has said she will no longer teach journalism or be adviser to "The Statesman," the school newspaper. The issue that started this mess was published in January and centered around the topic of "hooking up."

Officials said the paper recklessly exposed the identities of the students by using their first names and graduation year and failed to achieve balance by omitting those opposed to hooking up.

The administration had voiced concerns about the Statesman to Thill for a year, a spokesman said later.

While subsequent issues of "The Statesman" have not been censored, school officials have required the issues to be submitted for review before publication, though students associated with the paper say such requirements leaves less time for things like layout and pushes up story deadlines. One student, Evan Ribot, a 16 year old junior who serves as copy editor, had this assessment: "The staff as a whole has been a bit more timid, there's a little more trepidation. There has been a lot of second-guessing. We've said, 'Are we going to be OK with this?'" All of the students the Tribune talked to showed support for Thill. Eunice Chung, 17, managing editor for production, said, "She has taught us everything we know." [Tribune]