Paper writes story of star high school player's failure to graduate

[BillyT]

If this happened in affluent area the kids parents would be suing the school and paper for violation his FERPA rights.

You bring up an interesting question, Boom.

Now, I don't remember all the details, but it could be as simple as the kid not being on a graduation list.

Is releasing a graduation list a violation of FERPA rights?

Is releasing an honor roll?

Mystery Meat II: I thought we had established it *did* affect his future, because not graduated (or the issue of poor grades) seems to have kept him from being recruited by bigger schools.

You're not the only one to talk about being a "Very Serious Journalist," but I just do not see where people are getting that from.

Writing and editing a newspaper is a series of decisions. This paper made one. (It may have been an editor-assigned story, who knows?). I don't think it necessarily had to do with "serious journalism."

You make calls every day. Some good, some bad. Some that outside observers agree with and some that they don't agree with.

 

[Stitch]

If this happened in affluent area the kids parents would be suing the school and paper for violation his FERPA rights.

You bring up an interesting question, Boom.

Now, I don't remember all the details, but it could be as simple as the kid not being on a graduation list.

Is releasing a graduation list a violation of FERPA rights?

Is releasing an honor roll?

Mystery Meat II: I thought we had established it *did* affect his future, because not graduated (or the issue of poor grades) seems to have kept him from being recruited by bigger schools.

You're not the only one to talk about being a "Very Serious Journalist," but I just do not see where people are getting that from.

Writing and editing a newspaper is a series of decisions. This paper made one. (It may have been an editor-assigned story, who knows?). I don't think it necessarily had to do with "serious journalism."

You make calls every day. Some good, some bad. Some that outside observers agree with and some that they don't agree with.

The "Very Serious Journalist" is something I have been guilty of and I see constantly in sports coverage. You feel pressure to prove your a worth as a "serious" reporter to garner the respect of peers on the news side, and editors bring pressure to prove every section brings "serious" journalism to readers.

I'd rather shame a kid for underage drinking than this, but I don't see too many papers name athletes who are suspended for drinking. Even in pro coverage, newspapers don't name specific allegations and use the generic "violation of team rules." USA Today did it with the suspensions of Radulov and Kostitsyn during the Predators series with Phoenix.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/hockey/nhl/story/2012-05-01/radulov-andrei-kostitsyn-suspended/54660900/1

 

[Mark2010]

The rules about what makes a "journalist" vs. "not a journalist" remind me of the old rule about defensive stats in baseball: If you come up with a defensive stat that says that Ozzie Smith was bad, you have a flawed stat.

If you have a rule that says I'm honor-bound to report the academic status of a HS kid, then you've got a flawed rule. If that's what you have to do to be a real journalist, I'm quite comfortable being a fake one.

If you want to do a story about schools not taking care of athletes academically, then do that story. But this wasn't that story.

It's not a rule, Rick. No one claimed it was. Maybe a directive from an editor somewhere, but not a rule.

What I am saying is there is no violation of any sort of ethics or privacy here. heck, there is no privacy in reality. If you write a story saying the star softball pitcher isn't playing her senior season because she got knocked up and is pregnant out of wedlock, is that wrong, too?

Or, if the same story was written about a college football player who didn't graduate, is that any different?

 

[Mystery Meat II]

A crime isn't the same as an academic failure.

The community has an interest (not the same as "being interested") in knowing about crimes committed in the community. Academic failures are not the same as crimes.

But personally, I'd put that in news and not sports.

Rick: My approach would be that if the kid was not a sports star, you would just use it in the logs.

But because it means he's going to be visibly absent from a playoff game, it merits sports.

I do not remember where the paper played it.

So do you run a story every time a non-athlete doesn't graduate high school on time?

Mystery Meat II: I thought we had established it *did* affect his future, because not graduated (or the issue of poor grades) seems to have kept him from being recruited by bigger schools.

You're not the only one to talk about being a "Very Serious Journalist," but I just do not see where people are getting that from.

Writing and editing a newspaper is a series of decisions. This paper made one. (It may have been an editor-assigned story, who knows?). I don't think it necessarily had to do with "serious journalism."

You make calls every day. Some good, some bad. Some that outside observers agree with and some that they don't agree with.

As I understand it, he already lost his BCS ride possibility because of his academic issues, and he accepted an offer from a JuCo in February. Not graduating didn't do anything to change that. If at some point the JuCo pulls the offer because he hasn't graduated, then that would be a story.

The Very Serious Journalist talk is a reaction to this notion that not running this story means that sports refuses to participate in any negative reporting, which is an overstatement. If a HS athlete gets arrested, kicked off the team for the always trusty "violation of team rules" or is academically ineligible to compete, then that's newsworthy and should be reported on. But people are making a rather large logic leap by assuming that those who don't embrace this particular issue as a story are somehow shirking their Fourth Estate responsibilities.

 

[Mark2010]

Years ago, our paper had a team that was playing in basketball playoffs, deciding game, trip to state tournament on the line. One starter out because of season-ending injury.

Second starter gets arrested at 4 p.m. that afternoon in the shopping mall parking lot for petty theft. Misses game while in jail. Team loses and season is over. I call the sheriff's department and get the details of the arrest and charge, just like any other police beat reporter would do.

The game is the big story of the day here in Podunk. We, as a staff, debate how to handle to arrest. We finally decide to weave it into the body copy of the game story, rather than run a breakout and mug (not police mug) shot. Hard to say if/how his absence contributed to the team's defeat. But since he was a starter, his absence WAS a factor that needed to be reported. I hope the kid learned his lesson at age 17.

Last place I worked, news side, we ran a mug of every person who got arrested that was in a story. Doesn't matter if they were later acquitted, charges dropped, etc. One night I had to run like a dozen mugs resulting from a drug bust. I HATED the policy, but the editor refused to budge or even discuss the matter. Glad I'm no longer working there.

 

[Mark2010]

So do you run a story every time a non-athlete doesn't graduate high school on time?

One place, we'd run stories on every freaking school's graduation in the area and run (in agate type) the list of graduates. We probably should have run the list of non-graduates as well.

 

[JosephC.Myers]

So do you run a story every time a non-athlete doesn't graduate high school on time?

One place, we'd run stories on every freaking school's graduation in the area and run (in agate type) the list of graduates. We probably should have run the list of non-graduates as well.

I've worked at places where they not only did this, but ran like a full-color section with senior pictures of the graduates from each school.

 

[RickStain]

The rules about what makes a "journalist" vs. "not a journalist" remind me of the old rule about defensive stats in baseball: If you come up with a defensive stat that says that Ozzie Smith was bad, you have a flawed stat.

If you have a rule that says I'm honor-bound to report the academic status of a HS kid, then you've got a flawed rule. If that's what you have to do to be a real journalist, I'm quite comfortable being a fake one.

If you want to do a story about schools not taking care of athletes academically, then do that story. But this wasn't that story.

It's not a rule, Rick. No one claimed it was. Maybe a directive from an editor somewhere, but not a rule.

What I am saying is there is no violation of any sort of ethics or privacy here. heck, there is no privacy in reality. If you write a story saying the star softball pitcher isn't playing her senior season because she got knocked up and is pregnant out of wedlock, is that wrong, too?

I sure as heck wouldn't write that story, and I'm not surprised but disappointed that there are people who would.

 

[dixiehack]

Once upon a time, I covered a region basketball tournament where Hometown High had a player out for "violation of team rules." Off the record, the story was he got his freak on with some girl on school property.

Should I have dug deeper to bring that out? Hometown won the game, and I mentioned the suspension in one line of a gamer. If they lost, does that make a difference in whether I should have turned sex reporter?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Once upon a time, I covered a region basketball tournament where Hometown High had a player out for "violation of team rules." Off the record, the story was he got his freak on with some girl on school property.

Should I have dug deeper to bring that out? Hometown won the game, and I mentioned the suspension in one line of a gamer. If they lost, does that make a difference in whether I should have turned sex reporter?

Years ago, the top girls basketball team in the state had its best player get pregnant around Christmas. We noticed she was playing fewer minutes as the season progressed and began to put on weight. Eventually, the coach confessed. He said her doctor had given the clear for her to play as had a doctor hired by the school district. The girl was a physical center, every time she was fouled hard or knocked to the floor there was a noticeable hush over the gym.

The mother threatened us, the coach and school district with a lawsuit if we did a story. Our attorney said we'd violate her HIPAA rights if we did a story. We sat on it.

Then the coach of the college team she signed with did a banquet. He mentioned how thrilled he was she'd be able to join the team after her baby was born. We did the story that night.

 

[Stitch]

Your attorney is an idiot if he/she cited HIPAA.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Your attorney is an idiot if he/she cited HIPAA.

He is a fine attorney. He's gone to battle for us several times about FOIA. Plus, I might be misremembering his exact reason, since this was a decade ago.