Dexter High School journalism students should get the full journalistic experience. They should be prepared to work in the real world. They should be better supervised – just like at a real newspaper. They should have their articles edited for content to reflect the standards of the community – just like at a real newspaper.
The Squall Editorial Policy says it is an "open forum for student expression." An open forum is a legal term meaning a place set aside for legally protected speech. The government may not limit speech in an open forum, except for illegal speech (speech not protected by the first amendment).
For a school newspaper to be a true open forum, the governing school board must knowingly and willingly give its authority to the student publication. The Dexter Board of Education has not done that. They are in the process of re-writing media policy #5722. The board is looking at four options. They will vote on whether to have an open forum media policy or a non-public forum media policy.
The Clean Up DHS blog was started by parents in Dexter to share information regarding the discrepancy between The Squall's editorial policy and the Board of Education's school bylaw governing school media. The blog was also started to highlight areas where the blog could use better oversight regarding content not suitable for all of the students at the high school. The blog had its peak page viewer activity on March 29, 2010, with 3,189 page views.
One frequent complaint about the blog is that the authors are anonymous. The authors and blogmaster indicated that there have been threats made against their children who attend Dexter schools. Because of these threats of retaliation, they have chosen not to reveal their names. A point of interest: the DHSfreespeech blog is also lacking first and last names.
