Schools to refine
publications code

Schools will 'sit down
and set guidelines, rather
than leaving it up
to the teacher'

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

Hawaii's public schools will be required to come up with a publications code and ensure that everyone understands and adheres to it, under a policy being drawn up by the Department of Education.

The proposed policy was triggered by at least two incidents in the past two years involving material in high school yearbooks that was considered racially offensive.

In one of the incidents, at Kalaheo High School, the state agreed to pay $80,000 to settle a lawsuit and give yearbook advisers racial sensitivity training.

Two African-American students and their parents and guardians in that case filed suit after a photo of the students was printed in Kalaheo's 1997 yearbook with a caption they thought was racially derogatory.

In another instance, a photo of a student dressed in what some people interpreted as a Ku Klux Klan costume appeared in Castle High's yearbook. The school's principal quickly apologized for not catching the photo before the yearbook went to print.

The department is soliciting input from journalism teachers, yearbook and newspaper advisers, principals, students and parents in refining its policy, said Judy McCoy, an educational specialist in the Office of Accountability and Instructional Services.

"It forces schools to sit down and set guidelines for publications rather than leaving it up to the teacher," she said.

The proposed policy calls for schools to include in their publications code a clear definition of a student-sponsored publication, and procedures to review them before they are published or produced, including who is required to review it.

The policy will cover not just printed publications, but audio and visual productions as well.