High School Newspaper - Scolded for "Sex" Edition

A high school in Hampton, NH, came into the media limelight because of a recent issue of its Winnachronicle newspaper that addressed the topic of sex. Parents were furious and high school administrators confiscated uncirculated issues. The principal said that the “Winnachronical had crossed the line of responsible reporting.”

If you look at the excerpt below, “(sex) It is something parents hope their children remain ignorant about until after marriage,” you will notice an unrealistic contemporary community standard, which is part of the reason children want answers.

I think this standard was also a concern, last month, when U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed, Jr. struck down the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) passed by Congress in 1998. COPA made it a crime for commercial Web site operators to let children access material deemed “harmful to minors” by “contemporary community standards.”

Maybe that particular issue did “cross the line,” but as a parent, I would rather have my children field questions about sex, rather than hide them. Let’s face it; hormones are raging by the time a child reaches high-school. They should expect responsible answers from us, not unrealistic ideals.