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Administrators at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Illinois are requiring the school’s student newspaper to use courtesy titles such as “Mr.” and “Mrs.” when referring to faculty, staff, or members of the school board.
The move is a reaction to a December editorial that a school superintendent called “disrespectful to the principal in content and attitude.”
When newspaper staffers went to the school board to ask that the rule be overturned, senior Molly Williams said, “they basically came out and said that it was about content and that they didn’t like what we were writing.” Added Williams, an editor on the paper, “it’s almost like they can’t take constructive criticism well.”
The practice of using courtesy titles contradicts the Associated Press Stylebook, the standard reference for newspaper style.
