PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Several City Council members are asking questions about a proposed School District of Philadelphia rule requiring central office approval before employees can talk with the press.
The district is reviewing the language in the proposed change to its media policy, after school board members last week criticized the language as overly broad and vague.
Councilmember Kendra Brooks noted that often there's no action on complaints until someone contacts the media. "In my years of advocacy and activism, the press has been a major factor in getting things done," Brooks said at Tuesday's City Council semiannual hearing on the district.
Councilmember Helen Gym also asked about the suggested policy change, adding that school staff are often the district's greatest cheerleaders.
"I am raising concerns about a policy that has been seen as largely restrictive and potentially impedes — impinges on First Amendment freedoms," Gym said.
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School board member Mallory Fix Lopez last week likened the requirement to a gag order. Speaking at the Council hearing, schools superintendent William Hite refuted that notion. "It is nothing that is intended to either gag or restrict individuals from speaking freely," he said.
District deputy chief of communications Monica Lewis last week told the board the policy was designed to ensure the district was presented in the best possible light.
Board President Joyce Wilkerson told Council the board was taking a "hard look" at proposed revisions to the policy.
"It was presented to the board," she said. "The board had any number of questions. So we're now actively engaged in making sausage."
Wilkerson told Council it was early in the process, and the public will have an opportunity to weigh in before any changes to the district's media policy are approved.