High School North Principal Michael Zapicchi will retire at the end of June, after more than 15 years in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district. In 1999 Zapicchi was part of the team of administrators who facilitated WW-P’s establishment of a second high school. His retirement has elicited deserved tributes to his managerial acumen and passion for teaching.
But Zapicchi’s legacy carries a stain, undermining WW-P’s much-ballyhooed commitment to student-directed learning and independent thought. Over the last two years, Zapicchi’s repeated censorship of North’s student newspaper, The Knightly News, has weakened our reporting, compromised the district’s educational mission, and suppressed information students ought to know.
The censorship regime has taken several forms: prohibitions against following newsworthy leads, demands to review stories before publication, and cuts to articles deemed “unproductive” or “negative.” Last year, Zapicchi killed a story about suggestive dancing at Homecoming. A few months later, he insisted that we rework the lead of an article about students who videotape fights. And earlier this month, he heavily censored a report on the firing of North art teacher Nishan Patel, delaying publication and reducing the story’s impact.
The Knightly News is not an independent newspaper. The staff saves article drafts to a school server, meets in a school classroom, and relies entirely on district funds to pay printing costs. The Supreme Court’s 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision grants principals wide latitude to censor school-sponsored newspapers. Indeed, according to the Student Press Law Center, one-third of high school newspapers nationwide face disruptive censorship policies.
But no law requires administrators to review articles before publication. Censorship is a choice. And in recent times, Zapicchi has chosen to censor material that might reflect poorly on WW-P, High School North, or his own leadership.
An aggressive free press is one of the foundation-stones of our democracy. From Watergate to Abu Ghraib, the Pentagon Papers to the Snowden revelations, American journalists have exposed injustice and spoken truth to power. The Knightly News is not a professional newspaper staffed by award-winning reporters. It’s more likely to write about student clubs and standardized testing than political corruption and overseas wars. But the staff should be allowed to perform the same crucial services in the school community that adult journalists perform in the wider world.
Zapicchi’s censorship not only denies the school honest coverage of pressing issues; it also does a profound disservice to journalism students. The specter of possible cuts discourages student reporters from asking difficult questions and following stories wherever they lead, two key tenets of journalism. The WW-P Program of Studies promises students the opportunity to “explore more challenging, investigative journalism.” But how can the Knightly News investigate serious problems when the school principal suppresses its reporting?
Jonathan Dauber, the current principal of Lawrence High School, will take over from Zapicchi this summer. Dauber will soon have a choice to make: continue Zapicchi’s censorship regime, or embrace the obvious educational benefits of an unfettered student press. We urge him to adopt a more enlightened policy than his predecessor.
Liam Knox
David Yaffe-Bellany
Salutatorian David Yaffe-Bellany served as editor-in-chief of the Knightly News during the 2014-’15 school year. Liam Knox served as opinion editor.
