It galls journalists, and should be just as upsetting to citizens and taxpayers, when we see yet another example of how poorly some schools understand the role of a free press in our civilization and how little concern some educators show toward their responsibility to train the next generation of journalists.
Too often, the way schools handle a questionable or controversial article in a student-run, school-owned publication is analogous to a math teacher who can’t do long division or a basketball coach who thinks the pick and roll is too complicated.
Case in point: Recently, the student journalists at the Herriman Telegraph researched, wrote and, for a moment there, published a story that set out to explain why one of the school’s history teachers seemed to have disappeared without warning or explanation.