Student editor-in-chief of The Lasso, Kate Karstens, proposed a petition to revise and replace FCCPS School Board policy 9.46. Karstens spoke before an open School Board meeting to suggest a revocation of the policy on October 11.
“This policy of prior review serves only to cripple our newspaper and fails to educate student journalists at George Mason,” Karstens said.
The 9.46 policy or “Prior Review” states that Lasso articles are subjected to prior review by the school principal. This includes the death of any school member, any criminal activity perpetrated by any school member or on school property, disciplinary infractions of any school member, and any inappropriate materials such as drugs, sex, tobacco, alcohol, or violence.
“I want us to be taken seriously and be a legitimate newspaper and we can’t be one with prior review,” Karstens said.
Karstens has been working on repealing the policy since March of 2016. She received help from the Student Press Law Center, and she has appeared in the Falls Church News Press, as well as in the National Coalition Against Censorship website, being interviewed and speaking out against the policy.
“I wanted to get rid of prior review in March, but I didn’t start working on it until I called someone at the Student Press Law Center, and I began taking notes in August,” Karstens said.
The Falls Church School Board will need to discuss and vote on the issue. Four out of the seven School Board votes are needed to change and replace the policy, and if replaced, The Lasso is free to publish content on any subjects that are deemed acceptable within the journalistic standards that The Lasso follows.
If the policy were to be repealed, then George Mason High School would become the first school in the state of Virginia to have a school newspaper without prior review. However, several states, including Maryland, Illinois and California, as well as the District of Columbia’s high school publications operate freely without the prior review policy in place. Mason first adopted the policy in 1974 and it was last revised in 2011.
The policy currently contains that the school district is held responsible for any lawsuits against The Lasso. However, with the policy that Karstens has written and proposed, The Lasso would be held responsible for any lawsuits that followed. The policy would not only affect The Lasso, but it would also affect all of the George Mason literary publications, including the literary magazine, Nine Muses, and the GMHS Yearbook.
“Falls Church City takes pride in their students, as they should. It’s difficult, however, to hear administrators talk about how proud of us they are, when they have no trust in us to publish our own perspective without approval,” Karstens said. “Give us a reason to make you proud. Trust your students, and trust this paper. Repeal policy 9.46 and make history.”
