Our Policies

Letters to the Editor

• Members of the WA student body are welcome to create letters to the editor, detailing their views on community issues. If you have a letter you would like to be published, please contact [email protected] to set up a meeting with the advisors and editorial board to discuss the piece and make any necessary revisions and/or suggestions. Letters to the editors are published as independent works that are not affiliated with the Ghostwriter staff.

Student Body Submissions for the Newspaper

• If a student wishes to submit a piece of writing to the newspaper, we will publish it online or in the print edition under your name, considering it meets the Ghostwriter’s expectations concerning quality and timeliness.
• If needed, the submitted work will be edited before publication.

Photo Pricing

• The price for one of our photos (full 4000×6000 resolution) is 10 dollars. Please email [email protected] to request a purchase.

Comments

• All students have the right to comment on content published by the WA Ghostwriter, but all comments must adhere to the current comment policy.
• Comments submitted to the website are all subject for review by editors of the website, but will only be edited if the comment violates our policy in any one or more of the following ways:
  • Comments contain obscene, suggestive, vulgar or profane (including letters followed by symbols or dashes), threats or an attack on groups based on race, gender, or sexual orientation
  • Misrepresenting oneself by using someone else’s name
• We reserve the right to refrain from publishing a comment.
• Hate speech is not permitted and threats are taken seriously.
• Personal attacks against our reporters will not be tolerated and those comments will not be published.

Data Collection

• We collect commenters’ IP addresses, pageviews, and visits.
• This data is never sold or shared with third parties

Why do we collect this anonymous data?

• IP addresses are automatically collected when someone comments on an article
• Viewership data assists us in understanding our readers and serving as feedback for when and how our content is viewed
• There is no way to prevent this data from being collected

Sources

• The Ghostwriter does our best to find sources that will provide necessary, accurate information for every article.
• No source may not be quoted as anonymous unless they would be put at legitimate risk by publishing their own name. If a source is to remain anonymous, we will not give up the identity of any source unless a subpoena is issued by the court of law.
• Reporters should not use close friends or fellow Ghostwriter staff members as sources unless they are sources that are essential to the story. This is to avoid bias and make sure our sources provide the most accurate insight.

Objectivity

• The Ghostwriter and our reporters do our best to remain objective in article that we publish unless it is categorized as an opinion piece.
• Our reporters will NOT take any sort of compensation, gift, or favor that will cause them to have bias when writing an article.

Use of Language

• When quoting sources, the article will contain the exact language used verbatim. We will not add or change any words to quotations that were not directly said by the source. If proof is needed that the quotation was directly said by the source, we can provide a recording or notes from the interview.
• Under any exception will we use profanity, swear or slang terms in any content published on our website.

Opinions

• The Ghostwriter will only publish a subjective article if it is labeled as an opinion or a review piece.
• We do not publish editorials written by an entire editorial board, all of our opinions are written by a single reporter.
  • Likewise, our opinion pieces solely represent the views of the reporter who wrote the article, and do not represent the views of any other person or group, including but not limited to the Ghostwriter, Westford Academy, or the Town of Westford.
• We do not publish opinion pieces written by someone who is not part of the Ghostwriter staff. If someone would like to make their point, we encourage them to use the comments section or send The Ghostwriter an email.

Errors

• Spelling and grammar errors found in published articles will be corrected as soon as possible.
• Errors in information will be corrected as soon as possible. When an update is made to an article, there will be an indication that the error was edited in the following format.
  • Eg: ERROR CORRECTED: It was previously published that WA’s Got Talent will be held on Friday April 9th. The performance will actually be held on the 16th of April. Information updated at 3:20 p.m. on 4/4/2015.

Censorship of the Ghostwriter by Administration

• The WA Ghostwriter is an open student forum where students can express themselves freely, which exempts it from prior review of printed material and censorship by administration.
• According to chapter 71, section 82 of the Massachusetts General Laws, all students inherently have “freedom of expression” rights as long as they do not disrupt the operation of the school or violate others’ rights.
• All requests from administration concerning removal of content must be submitted formally to the current newspaper Editor(s)-In-Chief and to the newspaper’s advisors by the current principal of Westford Academy.
  • Following the request, the current Editor(s)-In-Chief will sit down with the principal and discuss why he or she feels the offending material disrupts or operation of the school, or violates others’ rights.
• The final decision about removal of content will be made by the current Editor(s)-In-Chief, along with the newspaper’s advisers, and administration will be notified of the decision.

Creative Commons and Use of Ghostwriter Content

• The Ghostwriter condones the use of article content only if the information is directly quoted, and if we are cited and the information is attributed to us. A link to www.waghostwriter.com must be provided if article quotations are to be used.
• Our video and photo content is not to be used at all, with or without a citation. If one would like to use a video or a photo, please contact us at [email protected]
• You may not use our work in a commercial setting without our permission. If our content is to be used or cited on a website, and there are advertisements running on that page, then you should contact us for information on commercial use.