Policies

Editorial Policy

The goal of The La Salle Falconer is to provide a forum for all readers to engage with what is happening in the La Salle community. We are committed to informing our readers with content that is designed to increase their ability to be informed, engaged members of the community. We aim to seek the truth and report it.

Since The Falconer is a student-run publication, we, the students of The Falconer staff, have the responsibility to make and defend independent decisions regarding all content of the publication.

Our priority is to maximize truth and minimize harm. We believe that all members of the La Salle community are entitled to information about what is happening in the school.

The Falconer encourages all readers to share feedback by sending letters to the editors or commenting on stories. We care about the student body and community, and we are completely open to and interested in hearing our readers’ opinions.

Code of Ethics

The Falconer follows the National Scholastic Press Association’s Code of Ethics for High School Journalists, which emphasizes that student journalists must always work to be responsible, fair, honest, accurate, independent, and accountable, and to maximize truth and minimize harm in our reporting. Also, in occasional instances, The Falconer staff may rely on the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics for decision making, instead of the NSPA Code of Ethics.

For our media, we follow the National Press Photographers Association’s Code of Ethics, which calls for student journalists to strive for accuracy, respect, and dignity in their multimedia work.

Comment Policy

The Falconer wants to hear the voices of all of the readers, and we value readers’ opinions and feedback. However, comments need to be appropriate and respectful.

If a comment is submitted to The Falconer that needs review, the editorial board will consider the following questions and actions:

Does the comment include profanity? If so, the board will decline the comment.
Does the comment contain language that could be offensive or discriminatory towards a group or individual? Or could the comment be seen as offensive or disrespectful? If so, the board will investigate and decide whether to decline the comment.
Does the comment contain a factual error or misrepresentation? If so, the board will request that the error is corrected, and that the comment is resubmitted.
Does the comment attack an individual? If so, the board will decline the comment.

We welcome respectful comments that engage in conversations. All comment submissions are reviewed by staff to ensure that they are respectful and appropriate, and then are published as submitted. If you have questions or concerns regarding a comment, we encourage you to email The Falconer at [email protected].

Letter to the Editor Policy

Letters to be published on The Falconer can be submitted to [email protected], and all letters are published at the discretion of the student editorial board. Anonymous submissions will not be accepted.

The editorial board reserves the right to edit all material for length, accuracy, grammar, potential libel, invasion of privacy, or obscenity. Board members will return letters to the author with recommendations for word length, grammar, etc. prior to publication if necessary.

Pieces are not voted on based on agreement with the opinion, but rather on the editorial board’s assessment of the quality of the letter and whether or not it is newsworthy or important for the community to hear.

Feedback, Corrections, and Tips

If any reader has a news tip for The Falconer, notices a factual error on an article, or has general feedback for The Falconer, please be sure to reach out to us through our email [email protected]. We appreciate the community’s input on our publication!

While The Falconer strives to be accurate in all of the information printed on our site, occasionally we make mistakes. In this case, The Falconer is committed to swiftly correcting every mistake once it is noticed, because the integrity and trustworthiness of our publication are extremely important to us. Thus, when a mistake is corrected, we will add a correction message and fix the mistake as quickly as possible.

Takedown Requests

The priority of The Falconer is to publish the truth through accurate and reliable facts and reporting as best as we can. Writers and editors are trained before publication to ensure that everything we publish adheres to established norms of journalistic ethics. Therefore, the editorial board will not take down published articles except in unprecedented circumstances.

If the situation does come up, the board will consider the following questions and actions:

Does the article contain false information, an unwarranted invasion of privacy, or copyright infringement? If so, the editorial board will remove these elements and create a correction statement at the end of the article.
Does the article cause harm to the degree that it outweighs all other factors? The editorial board will investigate and make a decision based on our ethical values. In making these decisions, we follow the National Scholastic Press Association’s Code of Ethics for High School Journalists.
If the content does not meet either of these unprecedented situations, it will remain online.

Regardless of the measures taken, The Falconer’s editorial board will respond by explaining its final decision in addressing these measures.

Photo Request Policy

Photos posted on The La Salle Falconer website or social media accounts can be re-published by other accounts on an occasional and infrequent basis, but only with written permission. Requests for re-publication will be reviewed by The Falconer staff case-by-case and then either approved or declined. Upon approval, outside accounts can repost the original image(s) from The Falconer, as long as the following criteria are met:

A request has been made to The Falconer’s email account ([email protected]), reviewed by staff, and approved in a response.
Appropriate credit is given to both the photographer and The Falconer with the re-publication of the image(s). Credit should be in this format:

(Photographer Name) / The La Salle Falconer

If the re-publication of the photo(s) is approved, The Falconer will provide the original high-resolution image(s) — they should not be screenshotted, adapted, or edited from what was originally posted on The Falconer site or account.