TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Randy Hamm, the adviser for East High School's student newspaper, is exactly right: local students are being shortchanged by administrators who won't allow high school newspapers to go online.

The print journalism industry has undergone dramatic change in recent years, in the form of thinner papers, declining ad sales and subscriptions, countered to an increasing extent by advances in online products and news services. Learning how to adapt to this rapidly changing environment is as essential to any journalism class, as are lessons in how to report and write the news. College journalism programs have been teaching online journalism classes for more than a decade. High school newspapers should be encouraged to shift to online formats, but district and school administrators have handled the issue inconsistently.

Frontier High School's newspaper last year was told it could not publish on the Internet and East High School is awaiting approval to do so. Meanwhile, Liberty High School's reputable student newspaper has published at least three recent editions online. Asked about student papers going digital, Kern High School District spokesman John Teves said the Internet is "still a brave, new world for many," and that administrators have concerns about the consequences of publishing student photos and names online.

While the district's specific concerns are unclear, unsupervised access to the online environment by teenagers can indeed be worrisome. But there's no denying that today's young people are denizens of the digital world. Schools would be better off guiding and advising students in how to navigate this realm than prohibiting access outright. If students socialize and interact online with Facebook and Twitter, it's only natural they will also seek out their news online. Students and teachers who promote online journalism tend to better understand their audience and the changing methods of news delivery. Furthermore, in a time of financial strain, an online newspaper is likely to cost less to publish. Liberty's paper is published using a free Web-hosting service made available to youth publications by a nonprofit organization.

The bottom line is this: The Internet is not a foreign world anymore. Ask the students. Ask their teachers and parents. Ask media professionals and college journalism instructors. The high school district's initial cautiousness can be excused. But we hope it acts swiftly to make the sensible decision to not just allow, but encourage, student papers to go online. Overcaution should not trump students' First Amendment rights -- or their ability to receive relevant instruction in real-world journalism.