Editorial Policy

About us: The Elevator is the long standing student newspaper of Oregon City High School. Run by students, for students, we stand to represent our student body while providing reliable and factual stories that our community wants to hear about.

Content of The Elevator: The Elevator staff aims to provide OCHS students with reliable stories about current events and issues. Trustworthy information is our priority and we hold all of our staff to high standards and ethics. All publications are written by our staff and follow our peer review process.

Role of the Board: The role of our Editorial Board is to keep our newsroom running smoothly and efficiently. We not only want all publications to be well written, but well informed, and to create a safe space for students at all times. The Editorial Board has the responsibility to review articles as needed before publication, in certain cases.

Role of the Advisor: The advisor of The Elevator is a professional teaching staff member whose job is to educate our staff on journalism ethics and law and act as a role model for students. Their role is purely as an advisor, and they do not act to censor or decide the content of The Elevator.

Photos: Our photographers are also held to high standards and have a responsibility to be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subjects. All subjects are treated with utmost respect and dignity and follow the rules and regulations surrounding photography of specific subjects and in public places. It is also our photographer’s job to maintain the images’ content and context, with minor editing for things like lighting and completed and accurate photo captions that provide sufficient context. Any and all inquiries about photos can be made to our email.

Guest Pieces: Here at The Elevator we encourage our readers to get involved and submit their own pieces such as editorials (opinion pieces) and letters to the editors. Our Editorial Board holds the responsibility and right to edit any submissions before publication for clarity, grammar, and length, and are held to our ethics in order to keep a safe environment. Pieces that contain libel, obscenities, or invade any subject’s privacy will not be accepted. For inquiries contact our editorial board at [email protected].

Club Briefs: If you are interested in advertising your club on our website, The Elevator offers a free opportunity to any and all school-related activities. These are not written by our staff, but self-reports to be submitted to our paper. All briefs submitted are subject to review and editing by our staff for clarity. If you have questions contact us via email, or check out our club briefs page for more information and the brief template.

Ethics:

The Elevator is a news group independent from outside organizations, including but not limited to student government and school administration, although school administration has the power to review all publications.

At The Elevator we aim to be an honest and straightforward publication. Along with our group specific ethics, we adhere to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. If our readers have any questions or concerns they can contact us at any time at [email protected].
In our newsroom we do not shy away from topics deemed as controversial, such as cultural, political, and social topics, as our goal is to provide factual information about important events and issues to educate readers. All articles written about or in relation to controversial topics, specific people, and opinions are treated with respect and caution, going through review by our board before publication.