About The Paw Print

The Paw Print Publication Policies

Mission Statement
The Paw Print is a student-produced website and publication that operates as an open forum for student expression and the voice of the students, independent from the administration. We strive to cover a variety of events related to Plainfield South High School and discuss topics of interest to the Plainfield South students and the Plainfield community.

Publication Policy
The Paw Print abides by the Illinois New Voices Act of 2016, which guarantees the First Amendment rights of the student press. Plainfield South student journalists, not school administration, bear responsibility for their content choices. School administration may only censor or deny publication under grounds of libel, slander, obscenity, invasion of privacy, or inciting disruption to the school day, and the administration must provide evidence for their decision to impede publication. Final publication decisions are made by the Editor-in-Chief, a student. If Editor-in-Chief is unavailable, another senior editor will take over publishing duties. The Paw Print staff holds itself to the highest standards of fairness, balance and accuracy, and abides by the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics.

Editorial and Opinion Policy
All opinion pieces published to The Paw Print reflect the opinions of the writer. Staff editorials reflect a majority of the staff. The Editor-in-Chief will not deny publication to an opinion piece simply because it is controversial, as long as it is factually accurate, does not incite violence or encourage illegal activities, and follows the publication guidelines established in The Paw Print’s policies (see Publication Policy above).

Anonymous Source Policy

If a source wishes to remain anonymous to the readers of The Paw Print, they must reveal their identity to the reporter and the Editor-in-Chief and provide a compelling reasoning for this request.

Take-Down Requests and Corrections
If the staff becomes aware of a published error, it will be corrected with a note at the bottom of the page with details of this correction. The staff does not grant take-down requests of legal, truthful, and factually correct content that is published on the site. All content posted on this site becomes the property of The Paw Print.

Comments

Readers can comment on stories directly on the website, and the Editor-in-Chief will approve comments shortly after. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to reject comments that contain obscenity, personal attacks, libel, privacy invasions, or other inappropriate remarks. Comments must be kept under 400 words. Those who comment must include an email address and publish using their own identity. Anonymous comments will not be published. Upon submission, all comments become property of The Paw Print.

Letters to the Editor
If you wish to submit a letter to the editor, please attach the letter in an email to
[email protected]. The adviser, Caroline Butler, will be made aware of the letter as well. The Editor-in-Chief reserves the right to edit letters for grammar and length; inappropriate content; incorrect claims or facts; personal attacks; obscenity; libel; and privacy invasions. The letter must be kept under 400 words.

Advertising Policy
The purpose of advertising is to raise money for the paper. However, The Paw Print will not accept advertising that the executive editors determine to be obscene, libelous, misleading, in poor taste or illegal to minors. Advertising for political candidates and controversial issues will be accepted as long as they conform to other sections of the advertising policy. The Paw Print may not restrict space to one side of an issue or election. Permission must be obtained from any person whose picture is used in an advertisement.