IF THE supposed grown-ups in charge of setting policy at Sheridan High School don’t get this year’s Disservice to Arkansas Journalism Award, it won’t be for lack of trying.
It seems six student profiles have been dropped from the yearbook, including a coming-out-of-the-closet story about a homosexual kid. Let the assistant editor of the Yellowjacket, young Hanna Bruner, tell the story:
“I spent weeks perfecting my story, rereading, revising and eliminating all possible bias. There is no reason for the story to be taken out, and there is definitely no reason for all the other stories to be removed as well. The yearbook is a place for people to be recognized, and these stories are more than just fluff to take up space; this is real journalism.”
And real censorship. And for the usual all too real, and all too prejudiced, reasons.
This whole dreary episode brings to mind those lily-white yearbooks that segregated high schools throughout the South used to publish every year of the Jim Crow era. Flipping through the glossy pages, the innocent observer might never suspect there were any black folks in the whole breadth of Dixie, from Texarkana to Charleston.If there were any black faces in those yearbooks put out by all-white schools, they might be limited to the custodial staff. (“Oh, look! There’s old Ned!”) And now the Powers That Unfortunately Be at Sheridan High would have all pretend that there are no homosexual youngsters in their cramped little world.
A high school yearbook isn’t just another ephemeral student project. It’s a social document, one that belongs in the archives for future historians and sociologists to ponder. Those rows of dusty old yearbooks can be revealing, often more revealing than intended about what’s really happening behind the facade of fictions a society may erect to hide behind.
What will this yearbook say about Arkansas in A.D. 2014, intentionally or not? Maybe that would be a good subject not just for journalism classes but one in American history, too. Sample essay question on final exam: When does cut-and-trimmed history say more about a society than it’s supposed to? And why? Read and Discuss.
Every school publication needs a faculty adviser, even a faculty censor when necessary. Just as every responsible newspaper needs to be edited-not mutilated.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 03/21/2014