Before the spring of 1997, Kim Houlihan said local high school journalists would accept her advertisements for their newspapers. Then, she was notified that the school board had banned them. We offer alternatives, like abstinence. I'm sorry they feel the need to keep us from advertising. We live in a very conservative community.
Parents are very critical of our curriculum.
Armer said that any advertisement deemed sensitive, covering topics ranging from AIDS to reproduction, are subject to prior review by parents. We send a note home early in the year to parents to see what we are teaching. Many parents show up because, again, this is a very conservative community. But Jim Ewert, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, said the district may be violating a state law protecting student free expression. They are limited to preventing ads that are a threat to the school, obscene or harmful.