ACLU ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 11TH ANNUAL RICHARD WEISS STUDENT LIBERTIES PRESS AWARDS
St. Louis Central Visual and Performing Arts High Students to be Given Award at ACLU-EM Annual Meeting
St. Louis, May 23, 2000: On Wednesday, May 24th at the Washington University School of Law, the ACLU of Eastern Missouri will give out its student press award named after the late Richard M. Weiss, a prominent St. Louis broadcast journalist and civil libertarian. The Student Press Liberties Award will be presented at 7:45 in the Moot Court room of the Washington University School of Law Anheuser-Busch Hall and will be followed by a panel discussion, co-sponsored by St. Louis Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts, on art censorship.
This year's Student Press Liberties Award winners are Bernear Day, Kenneth Jones and Crystal Lewis of St. Louis Central Visual and Performing Arts High School (VAP) for their school paper's special edition on a St. Louis suburban school. Last December, student journalists from Clayton and Central Visual and Performing Arts High Schools visited each other's schools to report on problems facing students in city and suburban schools. VAP students devoted an entire edition of their school newspaper, The Eagle, to education issues. In addition to an article by the three award winners about what they saw at Clayton High, the edition included editorials from a student, teacher, parent and community leader.
The winning article began by acknowledging the accreditation problems facing city schools, but then set forth numerous and enlightening examples of problems facing students in suburban schools. Lack of security, lack of diversity, lack of individuality and an attitude suggesting money solves everything were cited as problems which jumped out at the student reporters. The VAP students were also amazed at the lack of respect students at Clayton showed for their teachers; teachers who the reporters felt were very dedicated.
The panel discussion following the award presentation will feature Mark Sableman, a media law expert and attorney at the firm of Thompson and Coburn; Mel Watkin, curator of The Forum for Contemporary Art and Sharon McPherron, Executive Director of the Craft Alliance. The discussion is open to the public and will focus on the last year's controversy at the Brooklyn Museum of Art over an exhibit that included a dung-splattered painting of the Virgin Mary and pig halves in formaldehyde. The panelists will explore how the St. Louis arts community and free speech advocates might react to censorship threats.