COLBY ? Religious leaders and educators are expressing concern over articles about seances and Ouija boards written by Colby High School journalism students in the latest school publication.

Three of 10 journalism students and another Colby High School student attended a seance and wrote articles about the experience for the Eagletalon.

“We brainstormed about the idea in class, and a majority of the students voted for approving it,” said Travis Siebert, co-editor of the publication.

That concerns Tim Morris, associate pastor of student ministries at the Berean Church, who believes people attending seances or using a Ouija board are opening themselves to demonic spirits.

Mike Merriam, attorney for the Kansas Press Assn., supports the students.

“The remedy for bad speech is more speech,” Merriam said. “Under the marketplace of ideas, you pick and choose from all views, and the more points of view you are exposed to, the better choices you are able to make.”

The articles ran in the Oct. 24 edition, a week before Halloween.

State law allows students to make content choice for their publications free of censorship providing the content is not “libelous, slanderous or obscene or matter that commands, requests, induces, encourages, commends or promotes conduct that is defined by law as a crime or conduct that constitutes a ground or which creates a material or substantial disruption of the normal school activity.”

Morris is concerned that the student publication is handed out not only at the high school but is also being circulated to the general public as an insert in the Colby newspaper.

Rick Roberts, Heartland Christian School principal, said that he understood the concept of free speech and freedom of the press, but he still believes advisers and administrators need to limit what is published.

“I’m dismayed that the teacher or administrator would allow this because I believe they are leading them into areas that our kids should not be going because of the dangers. Those areas are satanic or areas that deal with Satanism.”

Donna Henry, the Eagletalon adviser, said neither the school nor the district has a written policy about student publication topics. But she said the class follows the Kansas Student Publication Act.

She said she didn’t see it as anything other than her students researching a topic during a holiday season and reporting on it. She doesn’t believe her students were trying to convince people either way about the use of Ouija boards.

Rod Beiker, general counsel with the Kansas State Department of Education, said as long as the students had the option of not going to the seance or writing about the material, no state law was broken.

However, Colby High School Principal Bryan Kraus objected to the material covered by the students.

“I’m not in favor of the content, and my personal opinion is it was offensive. But as the journalism class, they need to learn about content and what to write and not write about. They have to look at issues of free speech.”