A quote about the Israeli war on Hamas in Gaza, printed in the Glenbrook South High School yearbook. (Dist. 225 photo submitted)
Glenbrook High School Dist. 225 school board members discussed restrictions on student publications and changes to three other district policies in the wake of yearbook articles discussing the Israeli war in Gaza and a quote many community members saw as antisemitic at Monday’s (July 22) school board meeting.
Along with the updated student publications policy, the Dist. 225 administration is expected to bring back other recommendations to the school board related to the fallout from the yearbook controversy at their Monday, Aug. 12 school board meeting.
The updated policy gives the yearbook advisor, assistant principal, and principal oversight over student-produced media content including the right to remove content found to fall outside pre-set guidelines.
The draft policy says, “Student journalists may not create, produce, or distribute school-sponsored media that, is libelous, slanderous, or obscene; constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy; violates federal or state law, including the constitutional rights of third parties; or incites students to: commit an unlawful act or violate any of the (Dist. 225) board policies or materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school.”
“When the student media adviser reasonably determines that student-generated media may violate one of the exceptions, the adviser shall, prior to printing or otherwise distributing student-generated media, notify the assistant principal of student activities,” the draft policy continues. The assistant principal may then take the issue to the principal.
“The principal shall determine whether one of the exceptions applies. If an exception applies, the principal shall implement ‘prior restraint.’ This may include reviewing, editing, and/or deleting such media material before publication or distribution of the media. The decision of the principal is final,” the policy says.
District officials said there is a difference between prior review, before publication, looking for specifically exempted items student journalists may not produce, and the overall approval of content.
Within that discussion of what student journalists may not produce, School Board President Bruce Doughty said, “We want to be on the right side of the First Amendment.”
The proposed policy also lays out what student journalists should do, including making decisions “based upon news value and guided by the Code(s) of Ethics provided by the Society of Professional Journalists, National Scholastic Press Association, Journalism Education Association, or other relevant group. Produce media based upon professional standards of accuracy, objectivity, and fairness. Review material to improve sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Check and verify all facts and verify the accuracy and context of all quotations. In the use of personal opinions, editorial statements, and/or letters to the editor, provide opportunity and space for the expression of differing opinions within the same medium(a) to align with the district’s media literacy curriculum mandate in Illinois School Code and include an author’s name with any personal opinions and editorial statements.
“No expression made by students in the exercise of freedom of speech or freedom of the press under this policy shall be deemed to be an expression of the district or an expression of Board Policy.”
School board member Skip Shien suggested forming a mission statement to give better operational parameters to the yearbook and school newspaper.
Earlier this month, Glenbrook South High School yearbook advisor Brenda Field was removed from her position as yearbook advisor, but on a split vote school board members opted not to terminate her employment. She was suspended without pay for 30 days, when the school year begins, and thereafter will not involve student instruction.
One of two articles in the 2024 Glenbrook South High School yearbook on the war in Gaza. (Dist. 225 image submitted)
An internal Dist. 225 investigation found Field left decisions over content up to a team of three editors. Regarding the quote in question, the investigation said Field left inclusion of that quote in the final printed and distributed yearbook because two of the three editors-in-chief of the yearbook were Jewish.
One member of the public speaking at the July 22 school board meeting found that the investigation’s finding into what he considered an antisemitic quote, which was allowed to run in the yearbook based on the fact that two student editors were Jewish, was itself antisemitic.
The investigation said the quote was printed out of context as it was placed with a headline referencing the war and Oct. 7, the day of Hamas’ attack on Israel, when the student quote was actually made in reference to the entire 75-year conflict in Gaza.
“In my opinion, it isn’t a war, considering this has been going on for 75 years. The first day, I woke up and I saw what Palestine did, and I was happy because they’re finally defending themselves,” the published quote by an unnamed sophom*ore said.
School board members also discussed what student media is, that besides the newspaper and yearbook, student performances could also be considered student media.
Before the meeting, Dist. 225 Communications Director Carol Smith clarified Journal & Topics questions about social media content.
Dist. 225 maintains its own general Glenbrook South and North pages on Instagram and Facebook, which are moderated by communications staff, Smith said. Many Dist. 225 school clubs also have social media pages, including many on Instagram. Smith said faculty club advisors to clubs oversee posting of content to those pages.
She says many district social media pages receive spam content in comments including commercial sales pitches, and that page moderators watch for inappropriate content.
Support local news by subscribing to the Journal & Topics in print or online.
