Here's what Seifert has learned. I needed to assure the principal and her staff that I would not create a newspaper for Middle College High School that was bent on destroying the institution's very fabric. Everyone is on a first-name basis.
Attendance is a highly unpredictable event.
The faculty feared the arrival of a big, new, prosecutorial voice beyond its control. My idea was to publish a school newspaper that students would write, that I would edit, that the school would fund, and that the principal and teachers would see only after it hit the hallways. The newspaper's relationship to the principal and faculty would mirror that of an independent daily to the local mayor and his administration. There would be no censorship. Anyone who found an article inappropriate was welcome to respond in writing or stage protests.