The Advocate's Charter

• I. Purpose of the newspaper

The Cary Academy newspaper has four primary purposes:

1. to act as a forum for student expression within the Upper School;
2. to help keep Cary Academy Upper School students informed about the world both within Cary Academy and without;
3. to provide students with the skills that go along with producing an on-line newspaper
4. to serve as a source of information for other Cary Academy publications.

• II. Activities

The editorial staff of the Cary Academy newspaper will meet once each week with the newspaper’s faculty supervisor to discuss the progress of the newspaper’s next issue and to discuss organizational and general editorial matters. The faculty supervisor and editors will also meet on an ad hoc basis for training sessions in team management, editing basics, and principles of design. Further sessions will be scheduled between the faculty supervisor and individual editors to ensure that each editor receives the training and support vital to a thriving enterprise. The faculty supervisor and the editor-in-chief of the newspaper will have a standing meeting to discuss the progress of the newspaper.

The student editorial staff will work one-on-one with the various contributors to the newspaper. As part of this work, student editors will offer contributors guidance, feedback, and support to student contributors.

Once each trimester, all the editors and contributors to the newspaper will be invited to celebrate their achievements.

• III. Contributions

Contributions to the newspaper will be solicited from members of the Upper School. Regular columns will be assigned to those students whose commitment to the newspaper is fully apparent to the editor-in-chief and faculty supervisor.

• IV. Faculty Supervisor

The Upper School head will appoint the newspaper's faculty supervisor.

• V. Editorial Staff

The editorial staff of the newspaper will be selected by the faculty supervisor at the beginning of the second trimester.

• VI. Meeting times and locations

The regular weekly meeting with the editorial staff will be held on Wednesdays after school from 5:30-7:00 and on Thursdays during Tutorial. Meetings will be held in Room U125.

• VII. Publication procedures

The newspaper will be published on-line. Before it is published on-line, the newspaper will be set up on a test web page that has already been created for the newspaper. Each of the student members of the editorial staff will have access to this test web page as will the faculty supervisor, Dean of Students, and Upper School Head. Before the newspaper is transferred from the test web page to the newspaper’s published web page, the faculty supervisor will notify the dean of students and the upper school head that the newspaper is available to be looked over. The newspaper will not be published until the go-ahead is received from the Dean of Students, or in his absence, the Upper School Head. When that go-ahead is received, the faculty supervisor will have the newspaper from the test web site to the newspaper’s published web page.

The appropriateness of each feature is the initial responsibility of the contributor of that feature and that contributor’s editor. The contributor’s editor has the additional responsibility of informing the contributor of any substantial changes that might alter the core meaning of a contributor’s feature in advance of publication. The contributor always has the right to pull his feature from publication.

Additional responsibility for the appropriateness of material in The Advocate lies with the Editor-in-Chief and the Faculty Supervisor. These two individuals will discuss any disagreements and attempt to resolve their disagreements amicably. Any discussions between the editor-in-chief and the faculty supervisor are had with the firm understanding that the faculty supervisor has the right to over-rule decisions made by the editor-in-chief.

In the case of any serious disagreement over editorial content or style, the Faculty Supervisor, Editor-in-Chief, Dean of Students, Upper School Head will attempt to settle the disagreement amicably. Any discussions as to content and editorial style are entered into with the firm understanding that the Head of the Upper School and the Head of School have the final say as to what is included and excluded from the newspaper.

• VIII. Cary Academy’s policies regarding free speech in The Advocate

The following statement reflects the Cary Academy Upper School’s general policy regarding free speech in Cary Academy’s online newspaper, The Advocate. This statement is designed to educate students, parents, faculty, staff, administrators, and other concerned individuals about the substance of Cary Academy’s general policy on free speech.

When determining whether speech is protected under the First Amendment, courts employ a balancing test, weighing the interests in free speech against the interests in having that speech restricted. When weighing the right to restrict speech outside of schools, courts have presumed that more weight initially lies in the interests of free speech. A different set of presumptions applies to student speech. As Justice White explained in the Supreme Court’s decision in Hazlewood (1988) [full citation needed], "A school need not tolerate student speech that is inconsistent with its ‘basic educational mission’ … even though the government could not censor similar speech outside the school." Accordingly, the courts have consistently given greater weight to schools’ interests in limiting speech than students’ interests in free speech. This has been especially true in cases involving independent schools, where courts have held that student speech enjoys virtually none of the First Amendment protections that it might enjoy outside the independent school setting.

Cary Academy’s policy regarding freedom of speech in the Upper School’s student newspaper, The Advocate, has been formulated to provide a more inclusive set of policies for student speech than the law would otherwise require. The policies have been formulated so that they are consistent with the school’s basic educational mission. As a matter of general policy, then, the school shall evaluate free speech issues in The Advocate with reference to the school’s basic educational mission.

As its mission statement explains, Cary Academy is a community dedicated to discovery, innovation, excellence, and collaboration, the safety of those who are a part of its community, and fostering good citizenship.

• Cary Academy’s commitments to discovery and innovation invites speech which pushes the boundaries of discourse. In particular, it invites speech which explores issues which in themselves may be unconventional within the context of the school environment.

• Cary Academy’s commitment to excellence includes a commitment to the excellence of student work. The student newspaper, The Advocate, is one such work. Accordingly, the school has a strong interest in ensuring that the Advocate complies with accepted journalistic practices regarding vulgar speech. The Chicago Manual of Style and The Associated Press Stylebook and Libel Manual will be used as arbiters to determine professional stylistic standards.

• Cary Academy’s commitment to collaboration invites speech which encourages student empowerment. This interest in empowerment provides the school with a strong interest in student speech which fosters student leadership. The school’s commitment to collaboration also provides the school with a strong interest in restricting speech which is overly contentious and causes undue conflict within the school community.

• Cary Academy’s commitment to safety is a broad one, which includes safety from various forms of harassment, conduct, and speech. This commitment to safety provides the school with a strong interest in restricting speech which is offensive, harmful, or hurtful to members of the school community or to the school community itself. The school’s commitment to safety will be of particular importance when evaluating indecent, vulgar, or offensive speech.

• Cary Academy’s commitment to fostering good citizenship provides the school with a strong interest in permitting students a forum for the exchange of ideas. If students are to graduate and become active participants in America’s democratic process, Cary Academy must serve as a training ground for participation. That said, the school has an educational responsibility to set the civilized parameters for that exchange of ideas. As the Supreme Court noted in Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986),

The process of educating our youth for citizenship in public schools is not confined to books, the curriculum, and the civics class; schools must teach by example, the shared values of a civilized social order….The schools … may determined that the essential lessons of civil, mature conduct cannot be conveyed in a school that tolerates lewd, indecent, or offensive speech and conduct ….

The aforementioned interests shall be used to guide much of the decision-making process regarding free speech in Cary Academy’s student newspaper, the Advocate. Because of the school’s various interests in permitting free speech, the interests in favor of allowing free speech should initially be presumed to outweigh the interests in favor of restricting speech. Accordingly, the general policy shall be in favor of free speech, such that the scales in weighing the appropriateness of speech are initially presumed to be tilted in the interests of free speech.