Policy
Staff Policy
Bear Facts is an open forum publication, prepared entirely by the students of the Advanced Journalism (AJ) class. All design and the majority of the writing in each publication is done by AJ students. However, Bear Facts is also an extracurricular activity open to all students of Lake Zurich High School (LZHS) regardless of age, race, gender, religion, or other extracurricular involvement.
All decisions are made by the Bear Facts staff, which is compromised of students in the AJ class. The adviser is responsible for making recommendations based on school rules, applicable laws, ethical journalism, and other concerns that may affect the publication. However, final authority rests with the staff.
Because of Bear Facts’ open forum policy, students are invited to submit articles on any subject. Students willing to work with Bear Facts should contact any of the Bear Facts staff members via email at [email protected]. Letters to the editor are also welcome via the same email address. The staff, however, reserves the right to reject any material for publication if it does not meet quality standards, contains unprotected speech (including, but not limited to, hate speech) or plagiarized content. The staff also reserves the right to alter or edit any material submitted while retaining the original intent of the article or letter. This right covers (but is not limited to) the corrections of grammar or spelling mistakes and the abbreviation or elongation of articles.
The opinions conveyed by Bear Facts staff in print publications and on the website are not necessarily the opinions of the students, the faculty, the high school, or the district.
Bear Facts is published online at www.lzbearfacts.com. All materials published online follow the same process as those published in the quarterly edition.
Bear Facts staff and writers always seek to uphold standards of journalistic integrity, acceptable ethics, and truth. To this end, we will not run articles that fail to report truthfully, use false or deceptive methods of obtaining information, or otherwise do not represent a situation in a complete and accurate manner. Furthermore, the staff reserves the right to reject any article if, in the staff’s sole discretion, it violations any tenets of journalistic integrity.
All decisions regarding the publication of any material submitted by extracurricular writers will be made either by executive decision of the editor whose section the material is submitted to or, in cases of controversy affecting multiple versions of Bear Facts, by a vote involving all current AJ staff members.
Take Down Request
Should there be an inaccuracy within a story, a request to remove or alter names from stories, an issue with a story, etc., an email should be sent directly to [email protected] to be handled on an individual basis. Compliance with these requests is not guaranteed.
Website Terms of Use
The website https://lzbearfacts.com is maintained by Advanced Journalism (AJ) students. Bear Facts encourages users to comment on stories in order to provide constructive feedback. However, the staff reserves the right to remove comments that are deemed inappropriate. Online materials report daily news occasionally related to our print publication.
Advertising
To advertise in Bear Facts, please refer to our advertisement information.
Contributors and Letters to the Editor
Students are invited to submit articles or letters to the editor. Students submitting can contact any Bear Facts staff member at [email protected]. Staff reserves the right to edit any material submitted while retaining intent.