Our Mission Statement:
The staff of La Vista is committed to providing its readers with the highest quality reporting while maintaining a strict standard of journalistic integrity. La Vista aims to give a voice to the Mira Costa student body and publish information relevant to the school and its surrounding communities.
About:
La Vista is the student newspaper of Mira Costa High School, serving all Mira Costa students, grades 9-12, since 1950, when it was founded as Mira Costa’s first student organization. La Vista publishes 10 issues per school year on an approximately four-week basis and distributes about 2,500 copies to the student body on campus and 500 to subscribers and the community.
The student-run organization is a hybrid news source and is associated with the Columbia Scholastic Press Association. (2016-17 Silver Crown and Gold Medalist, 2015-16 Silver Crown and Gold Medalist, 2014-15 Silver Crown and Gold Medalist, 2013-14 Gold Medalist)
Disclaimer:
Content, which is the responsibility of the La Vista staff, is not subject to administrative approval.
Editorial Policy:
Unsigned editorials reflect the opinions of the newspaper, while opinion columns represent only the writer’s views.
Online Comments Policy:
We encourage readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regards to both the readers and writers of the publication. Comments will be pre-moderated, and may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy.
Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article they are about. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is not permitted.
A comment will be deleted if:
The comment attacks a named or identified person or group unreasonably; The comment makes readers unreasonably uncomfortable on the basis of ones race, gender, religion, disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation or otherwise.
The comment attacks personally any school employee.
The comment contains excessive obscenities or sexual explicitness.
Social News Gathering Ethics Code:
La Vista’s standards and practices are as follows:
1) Endeavoring to verify the authenticity of user-generated content before publishing or distributing it, holding it to standards that are equal or equivalent to those maintained for content acquired through other means.
2) Being transparent with the audience about the verification status of user-generated content.
3) Considering the emotional state and safety of contributors.
4) Considering the risk inherent in asking a contributor to produce and deliver user-generated content, including whether it incentivizes others to take unnecessary risks.
5) Considering technical measures to ensure anonymity of sources when required.
6) Seeking informed consent for the use of user-generated content through direct communication with the individual who created it.
7) Being transparent about how content will be used and distributed to other platforms.
8) Giving due credit to the owner of the content providing that consideration has been given to potential consequences, including their physical, mental and reputational well-being.
9) Endeavoring to inform and equip journalists to confront the dangers of engaging with sources through social media networks and the digital footprint they leave behind.
10) Supporting and assisting journalists who are confronted with graphic or otherwise disturbing content. Maintaining an organizational culture that enables journalists to seek help or speak out when they need to protect their mental health.
Letters to the Editor Policy:
To send a Letter to the Editor, please email lavistaeditors@gmail.com, fill out this form or address your letters as follows:
La Vista Newspaper
c/o Mira Costa High School
1401 Artesia Blvd.,
Manhattan Beach, CA 90266
The La Vista editorial staff accepts Letters to the Editor from current students at Mira Costa High School. The staff reserves the right to edit submissions for grammar, length, and/or clarity and publish Letters at its own discretion.
Letters may be written in response to an article published or on any topic a student wishes to discuss as long as it pertains to the student body, the Mira Costa campus, or the surrounding community. Letters must follow the school’s Ethics Code.
Following submission, the editorial staff will contact the student regarding his/her Letter to the Editor prior to publication.
Bylines Policy:
Articles written by more than one person will state in the byline the primary writer’s name followed by the contributing writer’s name. If an editor has rewritten a staff writer’s story, their name will precede the writer’s. If more than three people write an article, no name will go on it.
Corrections Policy:
Corrections will be printed in a corrections box when mistakes are found or brought to the attention of the staff. As of September 2018, under the “About” tab, there is a list of all stories that have been corrected. An editor’s note is at the top of any corrected story telling readers about the correction and tags the story with a special corrections tag so it will show on a corrections topic page and also come up if a search is made for corrections.
Fill out this form to submit corrections.