September 24, 2014
Mariah Timms
News Writer
National News
Last October, the Neshaminy High School student newspaper in Langhorne, PA, published an editorial explaining why the editors would no longer publish the nickname of their school’s football team, the Redskins, calling it the R-word. Last week, the school removed Gillian McGoldrick from her post as editor in chief for a month, suspended the newspaper adviser Tara Huber for two days without pay, and withheld $1,200 from the paper’s student activity fund. The original editorial led to a backlash from school officials, who said they couldn’t print a letter using the word with “R——-“ in place of the offending term. In June, the students printed a block of white space in defiance of the order, with an editors note explaining that the action “represents our resolve to maintain our rights as editors and our determination to eliminate discrimination.” The students are getting support from student press advocates and a crowdfunding campaign, but does not know what to expect when they try to publish the first issue of the school year.
