Why the Devil's Advocate Isn't Online

Do you wonder why The Devil's Advocate, the award-winning student newspaper at Mt. Lebanon High School, isn't available online? The question came up briefly in connection with this earlier Blog-Lebo post.

From today's thorough and flattering P-G feature about local high school journalism:

As for administrative oversight, at Upper St. Clair, Principal Michael Ghilani reviews the paper's contents before it goes to print. But at Mt. Lebanon High School, Principal Ron Davis gives Mrs. Henry editorial control over the newspaper.

That wasn't always the case in Mt. Lebanon. Two years ago, then principal Zeb Jansante pulled an editorial from The Devil's Advocate that criticized the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's coverage of the vulgar "Top 25 of 2006."

The list included the names and photos of 25 girls who were students at Mt. Lebanon High School and ranked them based on scores given for their breasts, buttocks and faces.

In place of the original editorial, The Devil's Advocate ran an editorial complaining that it had been censored by the principal.

Mrs. [Casey] Henry, a former reporter for the Associated Press who was off on maternity leave from the district at the time the editorial was pulled, said she believes it is important for student newspapers to have complete autonomy from the administration.

She believes so strongly that The Devil's Advocate should have autonomy that she turned down the administration's offer to have an online edition of the student newspaper because it would have required administrative review of the content posted to the Web site. The district provides about one quarter of the paper's $8,000 annual budget.

Lack of a web presence is a loss to the community -- but good for Casey Henry. Her students clearly have a fine teacher.