The Villager ran the piece as its cover story that week and later ran an interview with a student who clearly had an alcoholism problem. At Wesport High School, we can no longer pretend we don't have an alcohol problem. Our high school newspaper has seen to that. Many administrators might see that as a bit of a problem. After all, no one wants to see negative news items about their school in any newspaper, let alone in a student publication.
Some schools even try to keep their student papers from printing stories about sports team losses.
We don't do that. We don't censor the paper. We don't engage in any form of prior review. The students own the newspaper. They are responsible for what it says and what it does.