When The Paly Voice staff was informed of the seizure of alcohol and drug paraphernalia in the In Focus studio on Jan. 5 and the involvement of three students in that incident, a lengthy and sincere intra-staff debate ensued. Eventually, we decided that, as a journalistic entity, it was fully within our rights to publish a legitimate, unbiased and informative article. A week later, we stand by our collaborative decision to publish the article published Jan. 9 titled, “Paly students caught with illegal substance on campus.”
As classmates and colleagues to the three individuals caught up in all this, we would never let anything on this site expose them to undue ridicule, scorn or harm. Thus, although it was fully within our journalistic right to publish the name of the non-minor involved in the incident, we did not. In fact, the Voice ignored journalistic convention and allowed two of the three students involved in the incident to preview the story before it was published. The purpose of the article was not by any stretch of the imagination to spread gossip, but rather to expunge rumor and extend the truth to the Paly community.
It is unfair to suggest that the Voice is solely responsible for giving readers information from which they might deduce who the students were; anyone mildly interested in discovering the identities of the three students could have easily done so by asking virtually any member of the senior class here at Paly, or a vast number of other students at this school.
Admittedly, we do not have a “student suspensions” beat at the Voice. We pursue stories which we hear about. Often times, possible stories become old news quickly and are overlooked.
The focus of the story was not so much that the students were suspended, but that they were in possession of drug paraphernalia and alcohol on school grounds during school hours in a classroom.
As with all four journalism programs here at Paly, we at the Voice strive to emulate the ways of a professionally run journalism organization. In this way, it would have been hypocritical of us to overlook this incident. We deemed the seizure of a controlled substance at a high school while school was in session to be newsworthy and we pursued it just as any professional journalist would. Chances are, if a “professional” journalist were sent here to cover the story, his/her end product would probably have been written with even less regard for privacy and anonymity.
The seizure of an illegal substance was the latest development in a series of related newsworthy events that have occurred throughout the year. Earlier this year, two of the students involved in the seizure were also principal proponents of “Herbology” as a senior class theme during Spirit Week. These two individuals were also producers of a publication that maintained a great responsibility in influencing and informing the Paly community. A segment was aired under their authority that featured a statement promoting underage alcohol consumption. Later, another episode featured an apology for this statement.
Lastly, the stories references to In Focus are in no way intended to degrade the broadcast publication. The Paly Voice has nothing but the utmost respect for adviser Mike McNulty and his more-than-capable staff. The Paly Voice has never and will never conspire to portray other publications in an unflattering light
Editors-in-chief Nathan Lui, Doreen Bloch, Elena Marinelli and Kristie Flatley did everything in their journalistic power to ensure that the information used in the story was reliable and that the article was well-written. Again, the aim of the piece was not to cause unnecessary controversy; by publishing the article, The Paly Voice was merely doing its job as a source of news and truth.