Determination
73
Minnesota
News Council
In the Matter of the Complaint of
Independent
School District No. 738 against the St. Cloud Times
Appearing for the school district was its superintendent,
Roger Doucet, accompanied by two of the concerned parents. Don Casey,
executive editor, appeared for the newspaper.
Background: In its issue of October 23, 1987,
the St. Cloud Times published a story on a high school football game
between two top teams of the Central Minnesota Conference. The article
reported that the game was a "rout," in part because the losing team
"was missing five of its starting players." The article explained
that the five players had turned themselves in for violating the High
School League rules on use of alcohol and had been suspended from
playing. The coach was quoted, "These are all real good kids." The
positions played by the five suspended players were given. Also reported
were the names of the five players. While the grievant believes the
newspaper story devoted too much space to the suspensions and not
enough to the game itself, its main complaint is that the newspaper
should not have published the names of the juveniles.
Discussion: The sports program, says the district,
is part of its over-all program to educate young men and women. Mistakes
will be made by 15- to 17-year-old youngsters, and discipline for
mistakes must be imposed; indeed, this is part of the learning process.
But, contends the district, in a case such as this, it was not necessary
to publicly identify the youngsters involved. The boys had already
suffered enough; making their mistake a matter of public record only
added to their punishment, perhaps creating a stigma that will be
harmful to these youngsters with their lives ahead of them.
While the local community is aware of the persons
involved, says the district, this awareness is limited; publishing
the names in the St. Cloud Times, however, spreads the information
to those who really have no need to know, causes anguish to the families
involved, and gives the incident more importance than it deserves.
While no law forbids the use of the students' names, the many laws
protecting the privacy of juveniles illustrates the importance our
society places on treating juvenile matters discreetly.
The newspaper admits that "[t]he issue on use of
juvenile names in a situation like this is a difficult judgment call."
The editor states that whether or not to publish names of juveniles
must be decided on a case-by-case basis. In this case, the newspaper
noted that the consequences of the student suspensions were obvious
and public. The absence of five starting players from an important
high school football game was newsworthy. Consequently, says the Times,
it was not inappropriate to identify the players involved.
Decision: All parties agree the newspaper
story was factually accurate. Moreover, the Council believes the focus
of the story, explaining the outcome of the football game in terms
of the loss of five players, was appropriate and was handled with
restraint. The Times story quoted the coach as source of the information
concerning the rules infraction under which the youngsters were suspended,
i.e., an alcohol-related offense. Perhaps the school might have been
successful in keeping that particular information from the press,
but the circumstance here was that the press did know that it was
an alcohol offense and published that information in the story which
included the names of suspended players. We agree that whether to
identify the juveniles involved is a difficult judgment call. We cannot
say that it was improper in this instance for the newspaper to have
used names.
Rightly or wrongly, high school football generates
considerable public interest, and the players, even though youngsters,
achieve a rather high profile within their communities. With this
high profile goes the likelihood of publicity. In part, it is because
of this situation that high school athletes are required to attend
an orientation session on the importance of compliance with High School
League rules governing student conduct. In passing, it should be noted
that several members of the Council at the hearing commended the five
players for their integrity in turning themselves in for discipline.
Here, the newspaper need not have published the names
of the juveniles. On the other hand, neither can it be said it was
inappropriate to have done so. The decision to publish, we think,
under the circumstances of the case, was within the discretion of
the newspaper.
We do not think, as the district suggests, that a
newspaper must adopt a flat policy not to use names of juveniles in
cases of this kind. There must be room for the exercise of editorial
judgment. Having said this, it is clear that the St. Cloud Times is
not unsympathetic to the concerns expressed by the school district.
"We cannot say," stated the Times, "that if a similar situation faced
us today that we would handle it differently. But with . . . the opportunity
to hear the concerns of Supt. Doucet . . ., the decision could be
different."
Grievance denied.
Concurring: Ashmore, Dornfeld, Igoe, McDowall,
Mundale, Orwoll, Parrish, Sundin, Swain, Tanick
Dissenting: Simonett, Warder
April 29, 1988
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Determination 74
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