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

There would be little legal reason not to run the story. Ethically, yes, but legally, no, or the paper still would have been in violation when you ran the story, notwithstanding the public outing.

 

We do this for all out local schools.

 

Mystery Meat II: My reasoning on running the story on this kid is that he's a public figure by virtue of his sports success. That's an opinion.

As far as the "serious journalist" thing goes, I guess I didn't see people making that argument.

That's not the way I am looking at it. I've done sports news and the dreaded Progress editions (cross/thread), and I consider myself a serious journalist all the time. I have never bought the "toy department" crap.

I think, at times, sports is more serious about getting things right and doing things the right way than news side is, and I certainly know we handle crunch nights better than news rooms. Election nights make me laugh. We do that at least two nights a week during football season.

 

It's about weighing two competing interests.

On one side, you have a HS student's academic privacy.

On the other, you have the profitability of the newspaper and the public's desire for juicy gossip about high school athletes.

I'm not a big fan of any opinion that weighs the latter over the former.

 

And that is where FERPA laws come in. This kid's academic privacy was violated. I bet it was something that the paper did not consider.

 

Before we get to the public figure debate, we have to determine whether the story is newsworthy. Truth be told, I can't imagine many circumstances in which the non-graduation of a high school student warrants coverage. Perhaps if he had signed a LOA with Oklahoma or Texas and it got pulled because he didn't graduate, though I'd bet everyone backed away pretty early with him because it's not as though he were a 4.0 with test anxiety. But since his not graduating on time doesn't really change anything, I don't see the point. He could pass the test this summer and graduate, and then what was the point of the original story in the first place? And will he keep getting stories about his failing the test every time it happens?

I disagree about how people see the department. It's not so much about effort as it is content. News is where the murders and rapes and city council meetings go. Sports is where the games and races go. A lot of people have chips on their shoulders about it; I suspect that's why Tony Kornheiser talked so much about the opera on what ostensibly was a sports talk radio show. And while nobody's come out and said it directly in this thread, it doesn't take a lot of ink to draw the line from "OH I GUESS WE SHOULD NEVER WRITE NEGATIVE STORIES ABOUT HIGH SCHOOL KIDS HUH" to that conclusion.

 

Technically it wasn't because he actually came out and told the reporter he didn't graduate.

 

"Wright confirmed Friday that he is one Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills test shy of receiving his diploma and has been studying hard. Texas requires Class of 2012 students to pass four subjects of standardized, exit-level exams."

Ok but how did the reporter learn of story to confront Wright? It says Wright "confirmed " which means that the reporter knew.

 

Story said many people were "surprised" that he didn't walk. Maybe people called asking what was up and he called the kid to confirm. Maybe the writer was there and noticed he wasn't in the program.

 

No doubt that the kid was not media savy if a prep writer could trick him.

 

A newspaper cannot break FERPA laws.

 

Boom: What do you mean "trick?" Reporter asked a question, kid answered it.

How is that a trick?

on The PERPA issue, it would be the person from the school who released the personal information who would have violated FERPA.