“The Coupeville and Oak Harbor high school newspapers aren’t like they used to be. Nor are they like each other.While one stresses more of the core fundamentals and reporting techniques of traditional journalism, the other encourages experimentation, personal opinion and a more “magazine-style” approach. Nevertheless, the students who put together the Oak Harbor High School Breeze and Coupeville’s Out To Pasture say their newspapers are a good reflection of their schools and provide an important outlet for students to tackle issues critical to young people.“It’s not really our job to just entertain everybody,” said the Breeze’s student editor Crystal Bronnes. Bronnes said a lot of people think a school newspaper should be filled with nothing more than lighthearted and fun stories. “Some people say the paper is boring but it’s telling them about things that are important. Sometimes news is just boring.”Bronnes comments regarding the underlying purpose of a school newspaper are echoed by Theresa Gonzales, a senior who writes for Coupeville’s Out To Pasture.“The things we want to write about are pretty hardcore stuff. We write about the issues that go on today. (The readers) have to be exposed to that,” she said. To underscore her point, Gonzales pointed out that her latest assignment has her taking on on the issue of drugs and the negative effects of marijuana.HAVE A COW, MANIssues are at the heart of Out To Pasture, which focuses each of its papers on a single theme. Currently, OTP students are all writing pieces related to health issues. Articles and editorials cover subjects such as stress, mental health and drug testing of athletes. The recent January edition used the theme of “making a difference,” with articles on community service, advertising, tutors and whether music and movies influence behavior.Coupeville journalism teacher Rod Merrell says Out To Pasture is a bit of an experiment that evolves a little more with each edition. Prior to this year the district went six years without publishing a high school newspaper.“I didn’t want to do a fluff paper,” he said. “I wanted them to use a news magazine format rather than a newspaper.”Part of the reason for adopting a magazine style, Merrell explained, is that printing of Out To Pasture is not included in the school district’s budget. Before the journalism class can print each issue they have to dig up the money to pay for it. As a result, the paper comes out on an irregular basis. Since September the class has managed to get three issues to press.Because publication dates are so uncertain, Merrell said trying to do timely stories on such things as school events or sports doesn’t make sense.“Nobody wants to read about a game that happened three weeks ago,” he said.Instead, students choose a theme, brainstorm ideas, vote on the stories they want to cover and make assignments. “We put in a lot of hours,” said Out To Pasture editor Emily Horr. “It’s a lot of writing … and a lot of rewriting.” So far, the paper — with its distinctive old-typewriter headlines and cow icons — has been filled with more point-of-view articles than unbiased reporting. Horr said there will be less personal opinion and more facts and research in future issues. For their upcoming edition the students are conducting interviews with experts and collecting information from reliable sources to back up their stories.A STEADY BREEZEThe Breeze has been a regular Oak Harbor High School publication for about 65 years, estimates the school’s journalism teacher Jim Waller.“I grew up in Oak Harbor and it was here before I was,” he said, adding that the newspaper has not always gone by the same name. Waller has headed Oak Harbor’s journalism program for 24 years.The most recent 12-page edition of the Breeze has the look of a traditional school newspaper with articles on new teachers, pre-college testing, the cheer squad and a senior class dance.There is hard news coverage as well, such as a piece on a pepper spraying incident at the school and a report on the drug Ecstasy, which has become popular among teens. For the most part, news and opinion are kept separate.Since the Breeze receives regular funding through the sale of Associated Student Body cards and advertising, it usually meets its monthly publication dates. Senior Jason Fry said hitting regular deadlines is one of the hardest parts of journalism class, but he added that the class has taught him a lot.“My grammar’s definitely gotten better and I’ve gotten better at communication and time management,” he said.For the Breeze’s business manager Amy Rupno the class has given her a place to polish her writing skills and to take on leadership responsibilities.“I enjoy writing. I do it for the fun of it,” she said.One of the big differences between the Breeze and Out To Pasture is the way the publications are physically put together. The Coupeville paper is laid out using computer programs such as Microsoft Word, Adobe PageMaker and Photoshop while Oak Harbor’s is still pasted up by hand using waxed-back sheets of type and X-acto knives.“We have a new PageMaker program but nobody knows how to use it yet,” said Breeze editor Bronnes. Time is the problem, she said. No one has time to learn the program and then teach it to the others.Waller said his students kid of enjoy the physical paste-up but he admits that it’s old technology that they are not likely to find in the real world.“We need to get on to the 21st century,” he said. FREE SPEECH?Both Out To Pasture Breeze students say they have a lot of control over what goes into their publication and they feel they are given plenty of leeway by their teachers and school administrators.“I feel a lot of freedom,” said Fry. “I can’t think of anything that I haven’t been able to write and get in the paper.”Fry admits that he likes to take on controversial subjects and create debate. In a recent editorial he criticizes women for whining, acting superior and taking to long to get ready.“Deep inside I’m pretty sure that girls just wish they were boys,” he chides in his column.In fairness, the Breeze accompanies Fry’s commentary with a piece by classmate Amy Ives who not only defends the female sex but takes a few potshots of her own at male behavior.Waller said giving his students room to stretch their editorial wings is a good thing and also a good way for them to learn that freedom also comes with responsibility.“Students have the right of free press. I encourage them to take advantage of that freedom as long as they are fair and accurate,” he said.Coupeville editor Horr said Out To Pasture has pushed high school journalism boundaries several times. Back issues have contained words and pictures that might have been edited out by larger, commercial newspapers.“Sometimes we have to edit out some cuss words,” said Horr. She said their editorial guidepost is Coupeville High School principal Fred Dahlem. If the students think the material will pass his scrutiny, they include it. “Sometimes we have to guess. Once we put in something he didn’t approve of and we had to put a sticker over every copy.”Teacher Merrell said he’s heard few complaints.“Every time it comes out I cringe a little,” he said. “But so far my phone has not been ringing off the hook.”Merrell said that in the final analysis, school newspapers give students something few classes can.“There aren’t many classes where your work is actually published like this,” he said.Waller agreed.“Whether it’s good or bad it’s in there,” he said. “And their name’s on it.”——————–Hot off the pressesCoupeville High School’s Out To Pasture can be picked up at the school, Miriam’s Espresso, Great Times Waterfront Coffee House and the Country Deli in Coupeville and the Solid Ground Coffee Shop in Oak Harbor. If you’re looking for a copy of the Oak Harbor High School Breeze, about the only place you can snag one is at the high school. ———————Schools newspapers live with semi-freedom of the pressThough freedom of the press is highly touted as a basic right in the United States, high school newspapers do not share the same legal liberties guaranteed to their non-school counterparts.In the 1988 Supreme Court case of Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the high court ruled in favor of a St. Louis high school principal who removed two pages from a student newspaper prior to publication. The pages contained student-written articles on pregnancy and divorce which the principal felt used inappropriate language and unbalanced reporting and failed to protect the anonymity of sources.In a 5-3 vote, the court determined that the principal’s action did not violate the students’ First Amendment rights. The court stated that schools “must be able to set high standards for the student speech that is disseminated under its auspices — standards that may be higher than those demanded by some newspaper publishers or theatrical producers in the ‘real’ world — and may refuse to disseminate student speech that does not meet those standards.”That means that beyond the issue of potential libel, schools can restrict free speech that is judged to be “ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences,” said the court.Writing for the majority, Justice Byron White said, “ school must be able to take into account the emotional maturity of the intended audience in determining whether to disseminate student speech on potentially sensitive topics, which might range from the existence of Santa Claus in an elementary school setting to the particulars of teenage sexual activity in a high school setting. A school must also retain the authority to refuse to sponsor student speech that might reasonably be perceived to advocate drug or alcohol use, irresponsible sex, or conduct otherwise inconsistent with the shared values of a civilized social order. Since 1998 it’s unclear whether a significant increase in news censorship has occurred on school campuses, but according to the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center the number of telephone calls it receives from students seeking help against threats of censorship has increased every year since the Supreme Court’s ruling. “