Megan Mineiro, editor of La Costa Canyon’s school paper, said she believes there’s a connection between the school principal's decision to cancel the school’s journalism class and an editorial in the school paper critical of his decision to fire the school's athletic director.
"The only thing I can think of is that they were unhappy with something we published,” Mineiro said, “or they were worried that we might become more critical of the administration. This was an opening for them to get rid of the program and they took it. But I don’t think they were expecting the response that’s come out of it from the students and the staff.“
Mineiro said she will appeal the decision to San Dieguito Union High School District's Board tonight.
Principal Kyle Ruggles said he thinks the students do an excellent job on the newspaper but he canceled the elective because of declining interest in the journalism class.
“I’m in full support of the paper continuing at La Costa Canyon,“ he said. “It just won’t be able to be offered as a curricular class.”
Ruggles said he will maintain funding for the paper as an extracurricular activity.
However, he was not opposed to the idea of reinstating the journalism class at some point.
“In fact,” he said, “if enrollment goes up next year, we’ll have the course.“
But Mineiro said making the paper an after-school program would make it too hard to produce. She said getting students to sign up for journalism is tough because the course has a reputation for being hard work, but she has recruited enough students to fill the class this year.
