Everett superintendent stepping down in September

One of the main opponents of student free speech in the state of Washington, Everett School District superintendent Carol Whitehead, is retiring at the end of the summer -- four months ahead of schedule.

Whitehead's free speech legacy includes ...

• Being sued by a pair of students at Everett High School who were unfairly censored;
• Watching a pair of her high schools' newspapers (Everett and Cascade) head underground because of repressive administrative practices;
• Suspending and nearly expelling a student for "working on" one of those underground papers and suspending a journalism teacher for allowing it;
• The tacit endorsement of secret video surveillance on that teacher; and
• The relocation of the journalism teachers at both Everett and Cascade to another school in the district.

Whitehead said she decided to up the time frame of her retirement from January to September because of a recent threat on her life.

Longtime leader of SPLC moving on; search for new director to begin this month

Mark Goodman, the exectuive director of the Student Press Law Center since 1985, has resigned his position effective January 2008 to accept a newly created position at Kent State University as Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism.

According to the SPLC press release:

SPLC’s board has begun making plans for a smooth transition as our organization enters a new era. A committee already is at work outlining the qualities, background and experience we are looking for in a new executive director. We expect to have a job description and application information available later this month. Please check the SPLC’s Web site in a few weeks for more detail: www.splc.org/directorsearch. Our goal is to interview candidates during the summer and name a successor by the late fall/early winter. (If you have names to recommend for consideration as the new executive director, send them to searchcommittee@splc.org). Mark will officially begin work at Kent State in January, 2008, and he will play a key role in the transition process.

It is unknown at this point whether the committee will be seeking another lawyer to fill the position.

If you've ever had the good fortune to attend a session by Goodman at the annual NSPA/JEA conventions, you know what an awesome advocate for student rights he is. Under his leadership, the SPLC has literally helped thousands of student journalists through various legal challenges.

If you'd like to send him a note of thanks for his amazing work and leadership, you can reach him here.