Responding Effectively To Newspaper Editorials.

Over the last year, newspaper editorial pages have feasted on the actions of public school leaders over incidents involving preteen kissing, colored lipstick, dress codes and the use of legal medications--all in violation of school rules.

The editorialists' admonitions have taken school district administrators and their boards to task for either (a) being borderline communists (for stripping students of their rights) or (b) failing to adopt strict policies to ensure safe and non-disruptive learning environments.

This bluster on the opinion pages is designed to put public pressure on school decision-makers. The question for administrators is whether it's best to reply to such criticism or ignore it for fear that a response only pours fuel on a small fire. Here are a few points to ponder:

* When criticized in an editorial, decide to respond or be silent, then live with that choice.

The time to write a concise op-ed article or letter to the editor is now, not a week after the editorial, especially if it contains errors. Don't write in anger or try to be cute in your response. Just set the facts straight. If the criticism is just, you may be better off making the necessary corrective actions than trying to defend yourself. But regardless of the accuracy of the censure, don't sit and boil about the unfairness of an editorial. Take the writer to task or let it ride.

* Public opinion is seldom motivated by an editorial.

Far more letters to the editor are published taking issue with an editorial than those agreeing with the newspaper's position. That may well be due more to the writer's feelings about the particular newspaper or the news media in general than to the specific position espoused in the editorial.

Divergent Opinions

* Realize that reporters seldom have input on editorials about news stories they wrote.

At small weekly newspapers, the editor also may be reporter, photographer, composer and the person who sweeps up after hours. But at larger newspapers, reporters say it's rare they are consulted by editorial writers.

* Editorials are simply opinions. If they were facts, editorial writers would never disagree.

Excerpts on student conduct rules appearing recently in four Kentucky newspapers make this case.

* Newspaper No. 1: "Surely, there are more important things for teachers, principals, school superintendents and judges to be concerned with these days than the color of a girl's lips or what may be attached to them and the hair-do of a boy."

* Newspaper No. 2: "Overall, schools are on solid ground by enforcing strict rules against bizarre appearance. Schools are not restriction-free zones designed just to see how high the little birds can soar. Creativity yes, but a student can excel in the classroom without orange hair, a ring in the nose, $100 sneakers or a poem on the back of his sweatshirt."

* Newspaper No. 3: "Teachers and administrators are there to exercise judgment, not to impose mindless one-size-fits-all rules and punishments like a bunch of automatons. There can be a fine line between strict conformity and loose individuality. Schools must strive for that happy medium."

* Newspaper No. 4: "The urgent need of students today is not blanket dispensation from the rules, even inane rules. Discipline--teaching that there are limits of permissible conduct has become essential in the schools because so many parents are disinclined to set and enforce the necessary rules at home."

Sage Counsel

Administrators might recall the worthy advice of President Theodore Roosevelt: "It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcomings..."

And here's how former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite defined editorial writing in his autobiography, A Reporter's Life: "(T)he ability to be both pontifical ... and wrong."

Brad Hughes is director of communications services for the Kentucky School Boards Association, 260 Democrat Drive, Frankfort, Ky. 40601. E-mail: [e-mail]