Bad call, not bad adviser

editorial cartoon by Monica Schwarze
editorial cartoon by Monica Schwarze

After a satirical cartoon titled “Fuhrman 4 Mayor,” depicting former LAPD officer Mark Fuhrman as a mayoral candidate, ran on the opinion pages of The Bulls Eye, the student newspaper at Diamond Bar High School, students and parents were outraged because of a racial epithet that ran in the cartoon. The cartoon, meant to satirize Fuhrman, caused controversy at Diamond Bar High School and led to the resignation of the paper’s adviser, Joseph Moran.

Parents felt that the cartoon was offensive because of the use of a racial epithet where Fuhrman is addressing a group of skinheads waving banners that say “We love Mark.” They felt that because Moran let the cartoon run and saw nothing wrong with it, then he has no business advising a student-run paper.

Moran should not have had to resign as newspaper adviser because he made a bad decision and let the cartoon run. He made a judgement call and did not see the potential harm. Does one mistake make him a bad adviser? If so, the Campus Times adviser would have had to resign long ago. Everyone has made decisions that many people do not like.

More than 100 members of the Council of African-American Parents (CAAP) met and demanded that Moran be fired. Moran said to the Campus Times that he resigned because he wanted to make peace and did not want to fight the group of parents that demanded his resignation.

At first he planned to continue as adviser, but when things got more and more heated, he decided to leave his position after CAAP met with Walnut Valley Unified School District Superintendent Ron Hockwalt and Principal Bob Corkrum.

It is hard to stand up and fight when the administration of the school is not behind you or does not have faith in the ability of the students or adviser. In the Sept. 28 edition of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Principal Corkrum said, “I do not read the newspaper prior to it coming out, I’ve relied on the intuitiveness of the journalist students and the adviser. But obviously that didn’t pan out.”

Administration should not have control of the student newspaper. The publication is distributed by the students with help from an adviser and the administration should not censor it.

Moran’s students were unhappy about the resignation. They accepted it after he explained that he thought it was the best thing in order to keep the peace.

Do they think that he is a racist? Moran is probably guilty of not understanding the sensitivities of printing the epithet. Many mainstream media outlets used the racial epithet without anyone being forced to resign. The editorial cartoon was done in satire, which is designed to hold human vices up to scorn or ridicule, and that is what the cartoon did.

Because the satirical cartoon, meant to depict Fuhrman as a racist, was taken out of context and over exaggerated, The Bulls Eye does not have an adviser.

Other Stories

Unsigned editorials represent the opinion of the Campus Times Editorial Board.

Monica Schwarze, Features Editor
Monica Schwarze

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