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Profanity dispute blocks newspaper
©Associated Press
September 19, 2002
SANFORD -- Seminole Community College has stopped the publication of its student newspaper in a dispute with the editor about an opinion column that uses profanity in discussing unwanted pregnancies.
Seminole administrators reviewed the column Monday and then held up publication of the Scribe.
College spokesman Michael Garlich said the matter is one of upholding standards of quality and responsible journalism established in both the paper's tradition and official policy.
"The subject matter is not the problem," Garlich said. "The article contains crude language that is not acceptable in a college newspaper."
Editor Margaret Acker, 18, said editorial decisions should be the editor's, not the college administration's.
"This may not be the best story to start a fight with the administration about," Acker said. "But if I give in on this story, I'll have to give in on another story and another story and another."
The writer, Robin Mimna, 22, said she would consider dropping the words if her editor told her to. But she is standing by Acker's principles.
"It's not so much about our right to use profanity," she said.
The column is Mimna's discourse on young, sexually active women who risk pregnancy and become pregnant by refusing to use birth control. After researching the topic, she was appalled, and wrote that way, she said.
Garlich said a resolution is expected today.
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