Forest Grove High School newspaper advisor reassigned after controversy | OregonLive.com

Forest Grove High School newspaper advisor reassigned after controversy | OregonLive.com

Forest Grove High School newspaper advisor reassigned after controversy

By Wendy Owen, The Oregonian

May 20, 2010, 4:55PM

A Forest Grove High School journalism advisor was reassigned this week after allowing anonymous confessions in the school newspaper.

Joan Cluff, who has taught journalism classes and advised the Viking Log staff for five years, will teach remedial reading classes for the remainder of the school year.

District officials said it was not a censorship issue, but rather a personnel issue, and would not discuss details of the decision.

Cluff swapped duties with another teacher, who will finish the school year as the newspaper advisor and journalism teacher.

The problem centered around a series of student entries in a feature called Viking Confessional in the May issue. Cluff said she and her staff of students eliminated the most offensive ones and ran the rest.