Denver students sharing photos, video with media throughout teachers strike say they’re getting pushback from principals

Students who have been sharing photos, video and other details with local media in an effort to aid document conditions inside their schools throughout Denver’s first instructors strike in 25 years state they’re receiving pushback from school administrators.

Toby Lichenwalter, a 17- year-old who is executive manufacturer of East High School’s broadcast group, was called to satisfy with Principal John Youngquist on Tuesday after Lichenwalter shot chaotic scenes inside the school throughout the very first day of the teacher walkout Monday.

“He informed me I can only movie for personal things,” Lichenwalter stated. “If I interact with media, he can’t let me be on school property. In order to communicate with media, we had to leave our own school.”

Youngquist told The Denver Post that he did speak with East High students who had been communicating with the regional media, however stated trainees were not being informed to leave school.

“What I said was when they’re sending details directly to media, they’re acting as representatives of that media source,” Youngquist said.

When asked about the context of his conference with trainee reporters, Youngquist stated he meets with hundreds of students every day and checks in with them all the time. He stated trainees will not receive school penalty for sharing information with the press.

“His rationale is if we are sharing with media, we are categorized as media and can’t be on district home,” Lichenwalter stated. “In truth, we are just trainees trying to get the word out.”

Joe McComb, an 18- year-old senior at Thomas Jefferson High School, shared his experience inside the school with The Denver Post and other media on Monday, and, by Tuesday, said he was being told by school administrators that he might not take images of what was going on.

“It was apparent that school administration had heard about reporting from TJ trainees in the news and some were not delighted about it,” McComb said. “I pushed back and said that people have the right to understand what’s going on inside the school. The action I got was something to the effect of, ‘We put on’t desire the school on the news.’

“I was also informed that I didn’t have the right to take these pictures in the first location since media-release kinds weren’t offered for the pictures and videos to be used.”

Jack Kennedy, executive director of the Colorado Student Media Association, stated this argument “absolutely does not use” to students taking pictures. Rather, it’s an issue involving the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act that the district and “the grownups” need to abide by.

“But shot explaining that to an administrator in crisis mode,” Kennedy said. “I put on’t believe it would go over well.”

Kennedy said arguing that students become “agents” of the media outlets they share info with is “a stretch.”

“They are operating residents of America, so I’m quite sure they can speak to the press,” Kennedy said. “If the argument is that they have to action off school grounds to hit the send out button to media, then I guess I would inform them to do that, and we can figure out what to do about this after.”

Kennedy stated, to his knowledge, there aren’t policies in place in Colorado that address this issue straight.

Colorado, nevertheless, is one of at least seven specifies that provide particular defense for high school students versus censorship from administrators, according to an analysis by The Washington Post.

“I don’t think any person is being destructive,” Kennedy said. “I think there’s a disconnect in between managing info. What’s your function for wanting to control info? The district will be fine sending out out all kinds of details from calm, quiet schools.”

Ariana Maes, a sophomore at John F. Kennedy High School, ran into pushback from administrators at her schools after she photographed students strolling out of class and sitting in the school’s auditorium.

Maes said she and a couple of her peers who are part of the school’s yearbook staff were trying to document what was happening inside their school during the teachers strike.

“We were informed by administration that this was not a favorable thing to be capturing and we needed to find somewhere else to take pictures,” she stated.

School administrators from John F. Kennedy High School did not return requests for comment Tuesday afternoon.

Frank LoMonte, the director of the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information and the previous executive director of the Student Press Law Center, said this is an issue that has actually been coming up more and more throughout the country.

LoMonte said numerous schools have prohibitions on mobile phone usage, and “if a school has a policy that only by the way applies to journalistic speech, then they can enforce it.” Still, the school has to have a policy already in place that’s evenly used.

But if a school enables a trainee to record for personal purposes, then a trainee should be permitted to do whatever he or she desires with that video footage. “Once video is legal for you to shoot, then it is equally legal for you to share,” he stated.

It’s not simply teen reporters who state they dealt with problems.

Students at the Denver School of Innovation and Sustainable Style said they also were reprimanded for filming their alternative instructor in the classroom. Senior Aaliyah Montes said trainees were recording the sub due to the fact that she was making condescending remarks towards the students and about the strike.

Montes stated that after the students were required to stop shooting, the alternative teacher turned around and began to record them, enhancing the conflict.

Denver School of Development and Sustainable Style Principal Lisa Simms declined to comment on the matter Tuesday.