Our Policies

We as a staff have adopted the following policies to express the rights, responsibilities and philosophies of this newspaper for the 2023-2024 year.

SUBMISSIONS

Letters to the editor, guest columns and all material submitted for publication must include the writer’s name and grade/position.

Opinions expressed in the publication, unless otherwise noted, are not necessarily those of the staff, faculty or school administrators. Individual articles represent the opinions of their respective writers and not of the newspaper as a whole. The Cypress reserves the right to not publish articles deemed harmful, slanderous, empty or careless.

We encourage letters to the editor as a means of reader participation. They are subject to editing for clarity and length.

We will not alter the meaning of any submissions, but we reserve the right to edit for clarity and length, as well as to correct spelling, grammar and punctuation when necessary.

AD POLICY

The Cypress is an independent newspaper, which means that external advertisers are necessary for funding. However, in order to ensure true independence, the Cypress cannot accept funding that comes with other commitments. Therefore, the Cypress only accepts money in return for advertising space; goods or products cannot be used toward the operations of the newspaper and therefore are not valid as payment.

Furthermore, if ad graphics are produced by the Cypress staff for an advertiser, they belong to the Cypress and not the advertiser who commissioned it. Finally, the Cypress reserves the right to pull an ad that is deemed inappropriate, offensive or otherwise problematic. If we find ourselves in this scenario, the Cypress will ask for a new image or provide a refund.

We reserve the right to refuse any advertisement the staff has deemed inappropriate to the high school community.

CORRECTIONS POLICY

When corrections have been made to a story, it will be noted in the corrections box on the editorial page in the next print issue. Corrections to articles online will appear at the end of the article. Mistakes such as grammar and formatting don’t warrant a correction but mistakes regarding incorrect information such as a misspelled name, mis-quote or an incorrect identification do warrant a correction. We welcome corrections via email at [email protected] or in person in room 385A.

BYLINE POLICY

All articles, graphics, photos, art, columns, reviews and other creative material, with exception of staff editorials, mug shots and cut-outs, will be bylined with the producer’s name. When more than one person has contributed creatively to a piece of work, everyone who contributed to the work will be bylined as a producer.

CONTENT POLICY

The Cypress will not print anything in the newspaper that is deemed libelous, obscene or in poor taste, in accordance with the Supreme Court’s justified standards.

As a responsible newspaper, The Cypress will not intentionally invade the privacy of any person, and will make every effort to correctly spell names and make accurate class and position representations. Accurate reporting of fact is the goal of the staff.

COMMENT POLICY

Although we welcome debate and heated discussion, we ask that all comments submitted are respectful and that associated names are real. The Cypress does not tolerate personal attacks or hate speech on our website or social media platforms. All comments are reviewed by Cypress staff prior to their publication on the website. Any comments that do not comply with this policy will be not be published.