Student Article Roasts High School Math Program : Faculty Threatens to Silence Paper

No one took much notice when editors of Cleveland High School’s alternative student newspaper took on such topics as the Ku Klux Klan, government education cutbacks or the Ethiopian famine.

But that changed Tuesday when students published a commentary that blamed recent poor mathematics achievement test scores at the Reseda school on the “rampant ineptitude” of Cleveland High’s math department.

The article brought threats from school faculty members to shut down the paper and sue its 16-year-old editor.

An unsigned article in The Forum newspaper labeled the department chairman as “ineffectual” and chided other math teachers for being “befuddled” in the classroom and for wasting time discussing such topics as littering instead of trigonometry, algebra or geometry.

The article reported that the California Assessment Program achievement test results in math showed Cleveland High to be the third-lowest high school in the Valley. It charged that the school’s Scholastic Achievement Test score in math “by all practical standards is a fail.”

“The poor, lonely math department is just that: poor and impoverished,” the article stated. “Impoverished of what? Good teaching skills. It seems that, of the 15 teachers in the math department, very few are able math instructors. The head of the ailing math department is a clear example of this rampant ineptitude.”

The article listed several examples of what its unnamed author concluded were questionable classroom techniques and procedures math teachers have used.

Talk of a Libel Suit

Mathematics instructors vowed to permanently silence the The Forum and talked of slapping a libel suit against its editor, Wade Novin. Administrators rushed to the defense of the math program and launched an investigation into how the article came to be printed on the school’s own presses.

Both the student editors and the adults were sticking fast to their guns at the end of the school day on Wednesday.

“They published a very slanderous article,” said math department Chairman Bob Thompson. “It specifically identified me by my title. I told them I’m going to get legal advice about this.”

Thompson, who has spent the last 14 of his 31 years in the classroom at Cleveland High, said a retraction or apology will not be sought from The Forum. “There won’t be another paper. School board guidelines state that there cannot be an abuse of a group of employees like this. They’ve abused us,” Thompson said.

Principal Kay Smith dismissed the article’s criticism as unfounded. “I think our math program has a very good track record. We’re not happy with the turn of events,” she said.

“We all have to treat each other as human beings. We can’t take pokes at each other. They have a right to free speech, but their use of school printing equipment is one of the things I’ll have to investigate.”

In the print shop after classes ended, editors of The Forum defended their right to editorialize about the math achievement scores. The students said they decided to act when the “official” Cleveland High student newspaper described the math scores as “good marks.”

“I wanted to air the problem of low scores,” said Novin, an 11th-grader. “Some students feel some of the teachers are not doing the best job they can. My intent was to help the students and help the school.”

Omitted Names

Novin said that he and other editors decided to omit all names from the article before it was printed. But he conceded that, “in hindsight, I should have had the author interview Mr. Thompson.”

Contributing editor Adam Hoffman, 15, said some newspaper staff members did not want the article printed in the form it took. “But, regardless of our views, we have to stand behind it,” he said.

Forum editors who take print shop as an elective class printed 1,500 copies of the newspaper. The editors said they contribute $60 per issue for ink and paper. But they said they could not afford the $300 cost of printing off campus if The Forum were banned from the print shop.

Graphic arts instructor Jeffrey Nevelow said he does not edit material, other than to watch out for “the seven words you can’t say on television.”

Future in Principal’s Hands

Los Angeles school district officials said the future of The Forum’s ability to print on campus is in the hands of Principal Smith.

“The board rule on complaints about employees does not refer to newspapers,” said Bill Rivera, assistant to the superintendent. “If the paper is printed during an instructional period, the responsibility lies with the principal.”

Even though the commentary was unsigned, Thompson said he has learned the identity of the writer--an 11th-grader who is enrolled in one of his math analysis classes.