WSPN identifies itself as an open student forum, a publication where students can make their voices heard. This exempts WSPN from the prior review and/or censorship by the administration.

• Chapter 71, section 82 of the Massachusetts General Laws (commonly known as the Student Free Expression Act) gives students the freedom "to write, publish and disseminate their views." This outlines all students’ "freedom of expression."
• Students inherently have these "freedom of expression" rights as long as they do not "materially and substantially" disrupt the operation of the school or violate the rights of others.
• The Pyle case (Pyle v. South Hadley School Committee) in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts says that the Student Free Expression Act "is unambiguous."
• All requests from the administration for content to be removed must be submitted formally in writing from the current Principal (in the form of a letter or e-mail from school-issued e-mail address) to the current Editor(s)-in-Chief, as well as the staff advisers. The final decision for removal will be made solely by the Editor(s)-in-Chief, however, they must consult the staff advisers.
• If a formal request is made, the current Editor(s)-in-Chief will have a face-to-face conversation with the current principal to discuss why it "materially and substantially" disrupts the operation of the school.
• Even though the Fraser and Hazelwood cases give school authorities in the majority of the country the right to censor anything reasonably considered part of the school curriculum, those standards do not apply in Massachusetts due to the Student Free Expression Act.
• Slander, libel, and obscenity are not protected speech under any circumstance in the United States.

• When you submit a comment to WSPN, it becomes our property. We adhere to our comment policy when posting.
• When you submit a comment, the name you provide, the e-mail address (or Facebook profile link), and your IP address are collected. Submitting a comment is the only time WSPN advisers and the Executive Board have access to view your IP address. We cannot pair IP addresses from our analytics with those in comments.
• All threats are taken seriously. Comments containing threats to someone’s safety (including your own) will immediately be sent to the WHS administration and the Wayland Police with the all information provided, including IP address.
• Hate speech, defined as speech that attacks a person or group on the basis of race,religion, gender, or sexual orientation, is not protected speech. At the Executive Board’s sole discretion, comments containing hate speech may be passed along to school administrators if deemed cruel and malevolent. We believe in healthy, strong criticism of ideas and beliefs, not cruelty.

• A source is any person or organization that gives information to a reporter.
• In articles, information and quotes must always be attributed to a source, unless it is common knowledge. (Ex., “WHS cafeteria lunches cost $3.00.” is not information that needs to be attributed. However, the statement “Cafeteria lunches in most American schools cost about $3.00” must be attributed to be considered valid. )
• Reporters may not use close friends or fellow WSPN staff members as sources for quotes, unless those people are essential to the story. For example, a reporter covering the Math Team may not quote their best friend, Hank the Math Team Member, because there are other math team members besides Hank. However, Hank may become Hank the Math Team Captain. In that case, he now has a unique viewpoint and authority which may be important to the article, and he can be quoted despite his friendship with the reporter.
• Sources may not be quoted as “anonymous” unless they would be somehow put at legitimate risk (e.g., threats of violence, persecution by the police or school administration, bullying) by the publication of their real name.
• WSPN will not give up the identity of any source offered the protection of anonymity unless issued a subpoena by a court of law.

When writing straight news pieces, WSPN will refrain from using swears, slang terms, and/or slurs. There is no reason for these words to be included in an unbiased, objective news story. When including quotations however, it is often essential to the story to use the quote verbatim. In blogs, opinion pieces, and other first person accounts, it may be necessary to the reporters’ voice and message to use slang or other words that would be inappropriate for a straight news piece. In some cases, the first letter of the word will be printed followed by asterisks or dashes. Final decisions regarding the use of language will be made by the Executive Board. These same standards apply to multimedia stories.

Copyright Philosophy

WSPN believes that information should always be free and accessible. To this end, we license most of our work under a Creative Commons license (see full details and restrictions below). We want to allow everyone who values our work to be able to re-publish and distribute it. We believe that freedom of information is essential to any democracy. However, we also believe in respecting copyrighted works and using them appropriately.

The Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license

• Our logo, photos, graphics in stories (graphs, charts, photo illustrations), videos, multimedia, articles, blogs, and policies, are all open for use under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported license. All other work is restricted copyrighted material, and we reserve all rights.
  • To legally use our work under the Creative Commons license above, you must attribute WSPN as the source of the work. In print we are comfortable simply with “WSPN” or “Wayland Student Press Network.” On the web, we strongly prefer that you hyperlink our name to the URL you got the work from. Without citing, you are stealing copyrighted work, and are not using it under the terms of the Creative Commons license.
  • You may not use our work in a commercial setting. This includes running our content on a personal website that displays advertising. We allow registered 501(c)3 non-profit businesses to use our work as long as the work is attributed and adheres to the rest of the Creative Commons license. Please contact us for use in a commercial setting.
  • You may not make derivative works from our content. Work must be used as-is.
  • This license is an international license.

To use work outside of Creative Commons licensing, you must have explicit written permission from the WSPN Executive Board for each use.

• WSPN values the opinion of its readers and encourages them to discuss its content.
• Comments containing obscene, suggestive, vulgar, profane (including letters followed by dashes or symbols), threatening, disrespectful, or defamatory language will not be published.
• Attacks on groups or individuals based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or creed will be rejected.
• All threats are taken seriously. If the Executive Board and advisors are worried for someone’s safety, the comment and related identifying information will be passed along to relevant authorities and/or the school administration.
• All commenters writing from the school network are subject to the school’s Acceptable Use Policies. At the discretion of the Executive Board, comments and related identifying information will be passed onto the school administration.
• All comments are approved by the WSPN Executive Board. Comments are reviewed as often as possible. This process results in a delay of anywhere from a few hours to a day before a comment is posted.
• Do not misrepresent yourself by using someone else’s name.
• WSPN encourages its readers to use their real names, but will not publish comments written by people who share their name until it has been verified that the comment was in fact written by that person.
• WSPN is open to strong opinions and criticism of its work, but WSPN does not publish comments discussing its policies and practices. Please stay on topic.
• Likewise, we welcome strong opinions and criticism of our reporters work. However, personal attacks on reporters’ will not be published. If you feel strongly that something was reported poorly, or strongly disagree with an opinion, we encourage you to submit a full article or commentary on the subject.
• Comments should be under 300 words. If you feel strongly about an issue, WSPN recommends submitting a full commentary on the subject.
• The views expressed in comments are solely the authors’ and do not reflect the views of WSPN, Wayland High School, or the Town of Wayland.
• Once submitted, comments become the property of WSPN.

WSPN will publicize events in the Twitter feed as the Executive Board finds relevant. WSPN has a small staff and cannot cover all events in the Wayland community. WSPN will only write articles about events that the Executive Board finds newsworthy. WSPN retains the right to be selective about what events they choose to publicize. WSPN will not publish articles that read as advertisements.

It is the goal of WSPN to maintain total objectivity in our news reporting. In order to maintain viewers’ trust, we believe that it is essential to remain completely objective. We do not seek to sway our viewers; viewers should, instead, be able to make informed decisions based on accurate and comprehensive reporting. If applicable, reporters should strive to be as detached as possible from either side of a story and not allow their own bias to become entangled. Similarly, student journalists with external involvement in a story should excuse themselves from such a story. Reporters will not accept gifts or favors that could compromise their journalistic integrity.

The Wayland Student Press Network is not affiliated with any professional news organizations. WSPN is a member of the following student news organizations: Quill & Scroll International, National Scholastic Press Association, New England Scholastic Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.