EDITOR:
This letter is in response to the false references that have
been made about The Free Press over the last week in Dispatch
articles.
EDITOR:
This letter is in response to the false references that have been made about The Free Press over the last week in Dispatch articles.
The Free Press, the award-winning Gilroy High School Newspaper, has not been and never will be, while I – Elizabeth Dirks am the adviser, censored in any way, shape or form.
The Free Press Editorial Board and I would be the first people to stand up and let everyone in this community know if student rights have been violated, especially if it specifically applies to the program that we have worked so hard to build and have helped to become successful. The Free Press Staff are the voice of Gilroy High School and have a professional and ethical responsibility to report on the censoring of any voice at GHS.
It is not because the Free Press gets censored that we are in the top 25 high school newspapers in the nation. We are in the top 25, because we report on real issues (sometimes controversial) that affect the entire student body and we have solid content coverage. We write as professionals, reflecting both sides of a story in hard news pieces. And, we at least know that when writing an opinion piece, we are educated on our opinion, taking into account the other viewpoint.
As a staff we are taught our rights, we know the law forward and back as to what we can and cannot do, not only as student journalists, but as professionals.
Let us make this crystal clear, The Free Press will not get censored while I – Elizabeth Dirks – am at GHS … I would quit first. This is my third year at Gilroy High and I have yet to encounter a situation that I would even begin to consider as a form of censorship. Administrations past and present have done nothing but support our journalistic endeavors. We have no doubt that this kind of support will continue.
Elizabeth Dirks, The Free Press Adviser, and The Free Press Editorial Board
Submitted Monday, Nov. 17, to ed****@****ic.com
