Devi Shastri

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

OSHKOSH - A story posted for one hour on a high school newspaper website has blown up into a controversy that now involves lawsuit threats, contradicting school rules and the best way to teach young journalists.

At issue is an article posted by Oshkosh North High School senior Brock Doemel regarding the whereabouts of an assistant principal, some locked bathrooms and whether there was a connection between the two.

In February, the school was having chronic problems with vandalism in bathrooms, particularly boys' bathrooms. The school newspaper, The North Star, gave students an update on the situation.

"As of now, the boy’s bathroom on the first floor by door 1 is closed indefinitely until further notice, along with a few others around the school," The North Star reported Feb. 15. "Currently, the administration has not disclosed when exactly the bathrooms will reopen or how long repairs will take."

Three days later, most of the schools' bathroom doors were locked in the morning.

Later that same day, Principal Jacquelyn Kiffmeyer sent an email to parents saying the bathrooms were closed due to a "custodial miscommunication" and were reopened once the issue was realized.

In subsequent days, students began to question why Assistant Principal Hans Nelson was no longer around.

"By the end of February, students are starting to notice the absence of, I would say, a very important figure in our building, Mr. Nelson. He was someone a lot of people have respect for, someone a lot of people know," Doemel said in an interview with the Journal Sentinel. "People start to ask questions, rumors start to spread."

On March 4, Doemel wrote a story in which he said Nelson's office "appeared empty and the nameplate above his door was removed after his purported resignation." Doemel connected that with the bathroom incident, saying Nelson had locked the doors "unilaterally," and that the assistant principal allegedly lied about it to other school staff members. He attributed his information to an administrator in the Oshkosh Area School District.

Doemel emailed the story to The North Star's adviser, Jason Cummings, to make sure he saw it. Cummings posted the story on the website.

Superintendent Vickie Cartwright said this week Cummings, an English teacher, started "thinking about journalism ethics and guidelines and spoke to another staff member." They decided to take the story down.

Cummings, a board member of the Northeastern Wisconsin Press Association, did not respond to a request for comment.

The next day, a statement from the principal went up on The North Star's site. Kiffmeyer said the story "did not include credible information or sources and was not approved by the Oshkosh Area School District."

Doemel contended that is when he started getting squeezed. He said the principal pulled him out of class three times to question him. Kiffmeyer asked if his source was in the school, male or female, Doemel said.

Kiffmeyer did not respond directly; she is out on medical leave.

Cartwright said she talked to Kiffmeyer. She contended Doemel was pulled from class twice — not three times. She said Doemel's characterization of the conversations was false; he was asked if the source was a district administrator and if he would turn over his notes. Doemel refused.

Doemel told the Journal Sentinel he stands by the accuracy of the posted story and this his source has years of experience at the district. He said he continued to try to get more information, enlisting the help of fellow North Star staffer Tess Fitzhenry. Fitzhenry's father, James Fitzhenry, suggested the students connect with the Student Press Law Center for guidance.

(Editor's note: James Fitzhenry is executive editor, USA TODAY NETWORK-Central Wisconsin. He recused himself from any role in the reporting and editing of this story.)

The students got in touch with Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the center, based in Washington, D.C. Hiestand suggested they file a public records request for documents related to Nelson's departure.

They did so March 6. On March 12, the district responded, saying it would cost the students $138.83, and their reporting notes.

"As you know, your request could include District records associated with the article printed by The North Star student newspaper, it is necessary that you supply to the District any records you have related to the newspaper and the recent article printed by The North Star so that the District can be fully responsive to your request, and any other records request the District may receive regarding this matter," the letter signed by Cartwright stated.

Hiestand thought the response was a quid pro quo — one piece of information in exchange for another. Wisconsin's open records law, he said, had become a bargaining chip.

"The students here were doing exactly what any good journalist would do," said Hiestand. "A teacher disappeared. They heard some rumors. They did some investigation and they were trying to find out some truth so they could report that to their community."

Doemel said he and Tess Fitzhenry followed up on their records request to find out where to send their check. But he had no plans to reveal his source.

Twenty-eight days after the district's first response letter, the students got another letter. They needed to pay before the records were released. And the demand for an exchange of information was repeated.

"In addition, we remind you of the necessity to supply to the District any records you have related to the newspaper and the recent article printed by the North Star so that the District can be fully responsive to your request, and any other records request the District may receive regarding this matter."

The situation came to a head Wednesday at a "public listening session" run by three school board members.

Much of the meeting focused on the district's policy toward student media.

The policy, implemented in November 2015 and written by the Ohio-based educational consulting firm Neola, dubs student publications "nonpublic forums" in which their right to speech can be restricted and reviewed to fit educational standards.

The restrictions give the district wide latitude. Stories published in The North Star and other student publications can be kept from publication if they don't fall in line with certain values or even if they are grammatically incorrect or poorly written.

"It's (Neola) a policy mill and, honestly, their student media policy, in particular, has been something we have been battling here at the Student Press Law Center for 15, 20 years, something like that," Hiestand said. "They're horrible student media policies, if you really believe that you should be teaching young journalists how to actually function as journalists."

At the listening session, Doemel spoke to board members, describing his side of the story. He said he didn't think giving up his reporting notes should be part of any deal. He considered them privileged information.

Further, the district's administrative guidelines, written to interpret board policies for administrators, actually contradict the policy, describing the newspaper as an entity run by students.

"No student media, whether non-school-sponsored or official, will be reviewed by school administrators prior to distribution or withheld from distribution," the 2018 guideline states. "The school assumes no liability for the content of any student publication, and urges all student journalists to recognize that with editorial control comes responsibility, including the responsibility to follow professional journalism standards each school year."

Board President Barbara Herzog said the body will review the district's policy on student publications. She expressed particular concern with two conflicting stances on whether the student newspaper is an open forum.

The policy raises questions of how to best teach young reporters in the trade, said Vince Filak, a journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Filak, who also spoke at the listening session, is on the steering committee for the Student Press Law Center and advised The Advance-Titan student paper at UWO.

"The rule is that in what should be an open forum, the students have the right to publish unfettered and then they deal with the backlash that comes or the kudos that come," Filak said. "That's the way in which you learn journalism."

A day after the board meeting, Cartwright said the request for the students' records was not conditional. The district wanted to obtain the notes because the paper is a district property, so the records are also district records that must be maintained under Wisconsin's public records law, she said.

"However, it was not a precursory," Cartwright said. "It was not, 'You have to give us this, then we will give you that.' It never was."

The students dropped off a check with the district Thursday, Doemel said. Jim Fitzhenry confirmed he paid for the records.

The situation required a balance, Cartwright said, between the students' rights and Nelson's rights.

"The article that was posted was related to a personnel matter," Cartwright said. "With personnel, there are federal laws, there are state laws, there are a lot of laws that are tied to what you can say, what you can't say. There are privacy things and rights that all people have."

On Friday, Charles Hertel, a partner with the Dempsey Law Firm in Oshkosh, provided a statement to the Journal Sentinel on Nelson's behalf. He called the article "factually false and defamatory." He said Nelson is considering legal action against Doemel and possibly others.

"What he is doing is not privileged," Hertel said.

Hertel told the Journal Sentinel — and Cartwright confirmed — that Nelson remains employed with the district.

Cartwright would not comment on why Nelson was no longer at the high school.

Further, she said Cummings is still able to publish stories on The North Star's website. She said there has been discussion of adding a layer of administrative oversight, but "no action has occurred." She added that no disciplinary action is on the table for any students.

And in one final twist, Cartwright said late Friday that district officials had taken the position that there was no source, so that had become, in her words, "a non-issue."

Filak said he hopes the board will do something to make student publications an open forum.

"The sad part is that I've seen this happen repeatedly, where administration overreaches, they employ some draconian measure, they threaten a kid or they threaten an adviser and then it blows up in their face," Filak said.

The larger question, Hiestand added, surrounds what education society wants for students about freedom of speech and censorship.

"Is this the civics lesson we want to provide?"

Contact Devi Shastri at 920-996-7207 or DAShastri@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @DeviShastri.