Starting an Unauthorized Student Magazine

[Salacious D]

A few friends and I are mobilizing to start a magazine for the school that would be in no way connected TO the school. We're planning on writing whatever we want, whether it is critical of our school, of students, anything. We're going to use whatever language we wish to, although in the first few issues we're planning on being somewhat conservative so as not to anger the administration too much.

The primary reason for this is that the School Newspaper sucks. I do a lot of reading, but I have rarely seen material on the same level as this. It is childish, and insulting. It is uninteresting and bland, possibly because of lack of talent on the students' parts, possibly because the administration or others censor the material too often. Whatever the reason, it is awful, and we'd like to put together something better.

Plus, there's the adventure. It's a gamble.

We'll be using aliases, and we'll also be maintaining absolute secrecy. We'll be trying very, very hard to keep anyone from realizing who we are.

My question is--has anyone ever heard of anything similar, and what happened? Did the magazine give out, did the administration find the writers, what did they do to the writers? Someone on this forum told me that no matter what I do, it's been done before. If that's the case, I'd like to know how it turned out, if at all possible.

 

[Porky]

Yeah, I studied this extensively last year.

While I doubt the administration will approve of your language, there isn't much they can do as long as you don't put in there any advertisements that can in any way harm a member of the student body. A magazine like the one you're talking about got shut down for advertising drug paraphernalia (bongs, papers, etc).

Because it isn't a school-sponsored event, the principal can't censor you. There's a privately-run newspaper at my school that's quite racist and hasn't been shut down yet.

 

[Salacious D]

We aren't planning on doing any real advertisements. One idea I had was to do an ad for deusch bags by the rabid femme nazi health teacher. How big is your school? Mine is only around six hundred students.

 

[Porky]

3,200.

Be careful. Just because they can't shut you down as of right now doesn't mean they can't take you to court.

 

[Salacious D]

The school I go to is actually exceptional--plenty of cash (several milion dollars for six hundred students I believe) dozens upon dozens of electives, great staff, all in all, a really good school. Possibly one of the best public schools in the country. That doesn't mean I don't have a few problems with it--they're slaves to standardized testing, there's one teacher in particular I despise, a femme-nazi gym/health guru. But beyond that, it's really the student body that we'd be going after. We're unbelievably priveleged here, and in spite of that there are still droves of us just not taking advantage of the opportunity they have to really, really excel. In other words, there are a lot of morons. Morons=comedy.

As for going to court, I'm not sure what effective case they could make toward damages? I don't think we'd be able to get a teacher fired, or anything like that. If it came down to court, which it never would, I'd like to make a show of it. It would come down to freedom of speech in public schools. If I could wedge it in there, I'd also mention the immense problem with compulsory education. I don't think anyone can admit that they truthfull enjoy[ed] being forced to go to school, for any period of time. Plus, if we learned what we were interested in, wouldn't our grades be better?

 

[waffler]

ive always thought of setting up and online magazine which would be alot easier way of not getting caught, just advertise the url around the school with stickers

 

[Porky]

Originally posted by Salacious D
The school I go to is actually exceptional--plenty of cash (several milion dollars for six hundred students I believe) dozens upon dozens of electives, great staff, all in all, a really good school. Possibly one of the best public schools in the country. That doesn't mean I don't have a few problems with it--they're slaves to standardized testing, there's one teacher in particular I despise, a femme-nazi gym/health guru. But beyond that, it's really the student body that we'd be going after. We're unbelievably priveleged here, and in spite of that there are still droves of us just not taking advantage of the opportunity they have to really, really excel. In other words, there are a lot of morons. Morons=comedy.

As for going to court, I'm not sure what effective case they could make toward damages? I don't think we'd be able to get a teacher fired, or anything like that. If it came down to court, which it never would, I'd like to make a show of it. It would come down to freedom of speech in public schools. If I could wedge it in there, I'd also mention the immense problem with compulsory education. I don't think anyone can admit that they truthfull enjoy[ed] being forced to go to school, for any period of time. Plus, if we learned what we were interested in, wouldn't our grades be better?

Oh, I wasn't saying they could have a case against you. There's no possible way. However, the principal could still be a jackass and make life difficult for you if he found out.

 

[JSH]

well at our school, the editors of our unofficial one 5 yrs ago got sued as they stuck their names on an issue which was deflammatory. Some of our CCF slept with some army soldiers and then it was in a national newspaper and they published a reprint with nasty comments about the gal. They eventually settled out of court, just be careful - online one is a better idea.

 

[Porky]

Originally posted by JSH
well at our school, the editors of our unofficial one 5 yrs ago got sued as they stuck their names on an issue which was deflammatory. Some of our CCF slept with some army soldiers and then it was in a national newspaper and they published a reprint with nasty comments about the gal. They eventually settled out of court, just be careful - online one is a better idea.

In that case they didn't get sued for insulting the girl, they got sued for libel.

 

[Salacious D]

ive always thought of setting up and online magazine which would be alot easier way of not getting caught, just advertise the url around the school with stickers

It's not as risky--where's the adventure? Plus we just would not have as many readers as a paper magazine would. We are going to have a website, though, for supplimentary material...

However, the principal could still be a jackass and make life difficult for you if he found out.

If we gained any popularity he might wind up biting off more than he can chew. The closest High School to ours has been on strike (!), the students, striking, yeah, because their assistant principal, who they liked, was fired. I guess I'm saying, if I become a problem to the administration I'll probably be liked by the student body (they like me enough already, was elected to student council...). I'm not worried.

Plus, although the guy is a hollow American patriot (he put "God Bless America" on the pens they give out to teachers, something a bit out of the ordinary), he isn't a bad principal. It has its problems (standardized testing) but our school is, like I said, a great one, for as far as public schools go. And I bet a lot of that greatness is because of what he's done.

well at our school, the editors of our unofficial one 5 yrs ago got sued as they stuck their names on an issue which was deflammatory. Some of our CCF slept with some army soldiers and then it was in a national newspaper and they published a reprint with nasty comments about the gal. They eventually settled out of court, just be careful - online one is a better idea.

We won't be making any money, and we won't be putting anything in there but what we write.

 

[JSH]

Originally posted by Porky
In that case they didn't get sued for insulting the girl, they got sued for libel.

they got sued becasue they reprinted the article (adding in bracketsvery deflammatory things about the girl ) like she was a sweet young innocent (not really, a right tart). This was a magazine for fun, not for profit, the girl sued and won. Just be careful