SHORELINE — Shorewood High School’s literary arts magazine, Imprints, is printed regularly each year, but after publication this year, some parents took offense and asked for a poem containing a profanity in its title to be removed.
The poem describes a teenager’s first sexual experience and was written by student Zoya Raskina.
School district administrators collected and shredded all remaining copies of the magazine, and reprinted Imprints without the poem.
Students are upset the censorship took place, saying it takes away their freedom of speech and the press. School officials say the district’s position as magazine publisher shows the final authority resides at the administrative or district level.
Recent graduate Jordan Schulz, who was on the Imprints staff for two years, said that a group of students on staff form a committee to review the students’ submissions and evaluate the pieces for publication.
“It had been up to our judgment and now they’re basically saying that our judgment had been incorrect,” Schulz said.
Imprints has printed profanity in previous years, including 2003 and 2004, said editor-in-chief, Liz Gasperini, in a letter to school and district officials.
“The Imprints magazine has always contained mature subject matter, and there have not been any objections or problems in the past four years in which I have been involved,” she wrote.
“It is not the responsibility of the staff to censor out good writing because there may be a small minority of individuals who object to their children reading something they may deem as too mature for their age.”
The adviser of the magazine, Steve Kelly, has filed a grievance with the district, said district spokeswoman Marjorie Ledell.
The school district could not comment on the situation further, because the district and union bargaining teams are in discussion, Ledell said.
“We expect that to be resolved before school begins,” she said.
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