Dear Wayland community,

As the Co-Editors-in-Chief of the Wayland Student Press Network, we would like to address the community response to our recent coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Since Oct. 7, WSPN has published opinion pieces from both the pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian perspectives in an effort to represent the different student viewpoints at Wayland High School. Both articles have sparked a strong community reaction, including demands for the articles to be taken down.

In order to provide context for our decision to publish these student opinion pieces, we would like to explain and address our policies and rights as student journalists. Due to the strong feedback we received from these articles, we communicated with Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand from the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), and will reference his message throughout this letter.

According to Hiestand, “a quarter to a third of [the SPLC’s] hotline calls right now are related to student media attempting to cover, address [and] react to what’s happening in the Middle East.” We recognize that the Israel-Hamas war is a heavily charged issue that students have many different opinions about, and for that reason, WSPN is devoted to remaining an unbiased, open forum for students to express themselves and their opinions.

We have read every submitted comment and have been made aware of community conversations with the WHS administration, some of which criticize our publication. We want to remind readers that while WSPN aims to provide a platform for all voices, the student opinions expressed on WSPN do not represent the views of the publication. In other words, the student opinion articles published on WSPN only represent the views of the author(s), and do not reflect the views of the student body at WHS, WSPN editors or WSPN as a whole.

We would also like to touch on what a WSPN opinion piece is and is not. An opinion piece, denoted by the title including the word “opinion” before it, is a piece that solely represents the writer or writers’ views. Because WSPN is a news site, all sections besides the opinion section include reliable news sources and information, whereas opinion pieces allow the use of editorializing. Yes, an opinion piece includes links that are meant to back up the author’s opinion, but it is possible that some links in an opinion piece will be biased. An opinion piece is not meant to be a reliable source—it is based entirely on the perspective of an individual(s).

All WSPN reporters and guest writers are protected by the First Amendment and the Massachusetts Student Free Expression Law. Some of the concerns we have received include questions of WHS administration’s approval of these articles. As a reminder, WSPN is not a school-affiliated publication and has a lack of prior review and prior restraint. This means that the editorial process is fully student-run and administration does not have control over published WSPN articles, or even the ability to look at a piece before it is published.

According to the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA), “if an administrator engages in prior review and then stops certain speech or ideas from being published, they cross the line into prior restraint, which is a First Amendment violation outside of a school context. It can also be a First Amendment violation in school-sponsored media if done without a valid educational reason.” Despite the fact that WSPN has a staff of around 50 WHS students, WSPN’s Executive Board has the final say on what is published.

“Massachusetts has a specific law on the books protecting the right of students to speak and restricting the authority of school officials to restrict that speech,” Hiestand said.

If an individual takes a serious issue with any published work on our site, please reference our takedown policy on WSPN’s policies page.

In addition to takedown demands, we have also received specific comments expressing that the pro-Palestinian piece, “Opinion: Deep dive into the Israeli occupation of Palestine since 1948,” is hateful and unlawful. When speaking with Hiestand, he made it very clear that “the substance of [this opinion piece] appears completely lawful” and is “not hate speech.” The same standard is applied to the article titled, “Opinion: Hamas’ effect on Jews everywhere.”

Because of the unprecedented amount of comments and feedback we have received on both opinion articles, we delayed the publishing of comments on these pieces. However, after much discussion and review of our policies and rights as student journalists, we have decided to post all comments that adhere to WSPN’s comment policy. Comments that are violent, directly target the student writers or specific groups of people or are threatening in any manner will not be published. Since we are a student publication, we approached this decision with caution to protect students and community members.

We recognize that the Israel-Hamas war is an extremely complicated and emotional issue that hits close to home for many of our Wayland community members. WSPN condemns all violence and hatred, and takes claims of antisemitism and islamophobia very seriously. We encourage readers to acknowledge that these opinion pieces were written by students who are processing their feelings about this complicated event and are trying to spread a message of peace.

“Students should be permitted to discuss controversial issues in a peaceful way, which is precisely what this article does,” Hiestand said.

We want WSPN to remain an open forum for all students to share their opinions, and if any student writers would like to share an additional viewpoint, we welcome them to do so. We appreciate all community feedback, and hope to create a basis for discussion through our continuous reporting. If you would like to share any additional questions or concerns with us, please email [email protected].

Sincerely,

Talia Macchi and Nadya Chase
Co-Editors-in-Chief

This story was originally published on Wayland Student Press on December 11, 2023.