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| Sean Simonson MPR Photo/Nikki Tundel |
But the op-ed that touched off the cyberstorm was editor Sean Simonson's piece, "Life as a gay teenager."
Benilde-St. Margaret's principal Sue Skinner called Simonson's parents a day after the piece ran, and also talked to Simonson. School administrators declined to be interviewed for this story, but Simonson said the principal wanted the newspaper to stop taking comments on the piece. Simonson disagreed.
"The piece was sort of to create this dialogue," said Simonson. "And if we just stopped accepting comments, we destroyed the meaning of the story and so it wasn't really worth doing."
Knight Errant staff, together with their faculty advisor, agreed instead to remove the two op-eds and the comments from the website, and post this explanation from the principal.
"While lively debate and discussion clearly has its place in a Catholic school, this particular discussion is not appropriate because the level of intensity has created an unsafe environment for students. As importantly, the articles and ensuing online postings have created confusion about Church teaching," the statement read in part.
..."I think it's always regrettable when a school administrator decides that the appropriate way to handle controversy is to suppress it," said Jane Kirtley, a professor of law and media ethics at the University of Minnesota.
...The editors say what they regret about taking down the articles is that it appears the commentators calling for their censorship have won.
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