After walking down Fond du Lac High School’s halls, hearing the word “rape” thrown around and laughed about between classes, Tanvi Kumar, editor-in-chief of school’s student-run publication Cardinal Columns, decided to write the “The Rape Joke.”
“The Rape Joke,” structured around the explicit narratives of three sexual assault survivors, took an in-depth look at rape culture at Fond du Lac High, an issue which she thought had been ignored by the administration after it being brought to their attention.
Given the aliases Sarah, Emily and Mary, the survivors described their experiences of rape, incest, molestation and sexual harassment, and how the quality of their day-to-day lives was diminished by attending a high school where rape culture ran rampant.
A month later, in March of 2014, after reading the article for the first time, Fond du Lac High School’s principal implemented a rule that administration be allowed to review the material of school-sponsored publications before printing. The rule read as follows:
“All school-sponsored publications shall be subject to review by the principal prior to print and publication. The principal may refuse to publish any materials that substantially interfere with the educational process, educational environment, or rights of other students, or materials that may be reasonably perceived to associate the school with any position other than neutrality on matters of political controversy. In addition, the principal may refuse to publish any materials that are poorly written, inadequately researched, false, defamatory or libelous, vulgar or profane, unsuitable for immature audiences, or biased or prejudiced. The principal’s decision is subject to final review by the Superintendent.”
“This is a reasonable expectation,” Jon Wiltzius told the Green Bay Press-Gazette in defense of his decision. “My job is to oversee the global impact of everything that occurs within our school and I have to ensure I am representing everyone and there was some questionable content.”
“We knew exactly what was happening to us. We were furious.” –Cardinal Columns Editor-in-Chief Tanvi Kumar
Outside of the story’s content, Wiltzius also found the photos accompanying it problematic. The photos were posed for and taken by students, one of which depicted a girl laying lifelessly amongst cardboard boxes. The Cardinal explicitly described on the first page of the publication how and why the photos were chosen.
Wiltzius reported grounding his decision to implement the policy in the precedent set by Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (1988), which essentially placed school principles in the position of publisher, giving them the option to censor school-sponsored publications for what they deem to be “valid educational purposes.”
Fond du Lac superintendent, James Sebert, joined Wiltzius in support of the policy, stating that the piece “raised some questions in my mind, as to interference with the educational process, educational environment and the rights of other students.”
By the end of the day of the policy’s announcement, Kumar had written a letter to Sebert which she distributed to him as well as the public. This was the first step of many in the fight against the policy of prior review.
“In every single introductory journalism class at my high school, you start out by learning about free speech cases,” said Kumar in an interview with the Student Press Law Center in 2016. “We were familiar with Tinker, we were familiar with Hazelwood. We knew exactly what was happening to us. We were furious.”
The Fond du Lac High School English department rallied behind Kumar and the Cardinal staff, issuing a 22-page document outlining the importance of freedom of the press and free expression for student journalists, as well as the importance of Kumar’s work which brought to light a very serious issue that they argued was, at the time, being ignored by administration.
Students, teachers and advisors lobbied at multiple school board meetings to advocate for the policy’s reversal and kept in consistent contact with the administration in an effort to increase the salience of the issue.
“This is a reasonable expectation,” –Fond Du Lac High Principal Jon Wiltzius
Some school board members believed the rule was not put in place to censor student speech but was put in place as “adult oversight” because the story was deemed age-inappropriate.
But school-sponsored publications from high schools throughout the area rallied behind the Cardinal’s fight, joining Fond du Lac community members in providing support to both the students and teachers who kept up the fight to have the policy reversed.
By the next school year, just months later, a committee internal to the school district reversed the policy, granting the advisor of student publications, rather than the principle, the power to prohibit students from publishing content he deemed “obscene, vulgar, profane, libelous, or inconsistent with the educational goals of the district.”
Though it is not known whether this controversy played a part in his leaving, Wiltzius stepped down as principal of Fond du Lac High School after the 2013-2014 school year.
“My advice to those facing censorship is to fight it,” said Kumar. “Understand that journalism isn’t propaganda. Every journalist or writer, in general, has somewhat of an obligation to tell stories in an artistic and eloquent way. Don’t let anyone impede on that creative process.”
Student Journalism 101 