Site policies

Terms of service

The rules for using this site, and what the paper does and does not promise.

Effective September 8, 2026 · Last updated September 8, 2026

1Agreement

These terms cover this website, which is published by the VGNews staff at Vista Grande High School in Casa Grande, Arizona. By using the site you agree to them. If you do not agree, please do not use the site. If you are under 18, read them with a parent or guardian.

2What this site is

VGNews is a student newspaper. Students decide what to report, report it, edit it and publish it. Our adviser advises; no administrator reads a story before it runs.

Because of that, this is not an official publication of Vista Grande High School or the Casa Grande Union High School District, and what appears here is the responsibility of the student staff rather than of the school.

Opinion is labelled. Columns, editorials and reviews carry an opinion label and a different accent, and they are the writer's view rather than the paper's or the school's. News reporting is not opinion and we keep the two apart.

News goes stale. Times, rooms, scores and rosters change after we publish, so check with the people involved before relying on a detail here. Nothing on this site is professional advice of any kind.

3Replies and takedowns

If we got something wrong, tell us: email news@email.cdespalo.com or use the feedback form, and name the story and the line. We check it and we fix the story.

If a story criticises you, we contact you before it runs and print your response in the same story. If we did not reach you, write to us and we will print the reply.

What we will not do is unpublish. Removing a story that someone has come to dislike is not a fix, and a paper that does it cannot be trusted by the next person who reads it. The exceptions are narrow and an editor decides them: a genuine safety risk to a named person, something published in breach of the school's media release, or material we had no right to publish in the first place.

4Rules for everyone

When using this site, do not:

  • break any law, school rule or district acceptable use policy
  • try to reach accounts, files or newsroom pages you are not authorised to use
  • probe or test the site's security
  • scrape or bulk collect content or contact details
  • upload malware or use the site to spread it
  • impersonate a student, a staff member, a source or the paper
  • harass, threaten or bully anyone, in a submission or anywhere else
  • send us content that is obscene, discriminatory or harmful to minors
  • interfere with anyone else's use of the site

5Tips, feedback and pitches

Anyone may write to us. Sending something does not oblige us to publish it, to reply, or to report the story you want reported.

A tip may be anonymous. Feedback and pitches ask for a way to reach you, because an answer needs somewhere to go. Feedback about the site itself reaches the webmaster at news@email.cdespalo.com; feedback about something we published reaches the editors.

If you send us something for publication, a photograph among it, you give the paper permission to publish it here and in print, to edit it for length, clarity and accuracy, and to keep it in the archive. You still own it. Only send work you made yourself or have permission to share.

Anything you send may be published unless you and an editor have agreed otherwise before you send it. Marking a message confidential after the fact does not make it so, though in practice we honour a request made in good faith.

6Newsroom accounts

Accounts are issued only to current VGNews staff and the adviser, and only for publishing this paper.

An account is yours alone. Do not share a sign-in with anyone, including other staff. You are responsible for everything published under your account, and if you think it has been used by someone else, say so to an editor straight away and change your password.

Access ends when you leave the staff or graduate. An editor may suspend or close any account at any time, with or without notice, for a breach of these terms or of school policy.

Before publishing anything, check that it:

  • is accurate as far as you know, and sourced
  • names its sources, or has an editor's approval not to
  • gives anyone it criticises a chance to respond, in the same story
  • does not carry another student's personal information without their permission
  • does not carry a photograph the school's media release does not allow
  • does not carry work, pictures or music the paper has no right to use
  • follows school and district policy

Everything you do in the newsroom is logged with your name against it, and what you publish is public and permanent. Write accordingly.

7Content and ownership

Stories, photographs and video on this site belong to the paper and to the students who made them. You are welcome to link to anything here and to share it for personal or classroom use with credit to VGNews and to the student who made it. Republishing a story in full, or any commercial use, needs our written permission.

Vista Grande High School's name, mascot and logos belong to the school and appear here with its permission. Nothing in these terms gives you any right to use them.

If you believe something here infringes your copyright, email news@email.cdespalo.com with a description of your work, where it appears on this site and how to reach you. We review every complaint and remove infringing material promptly.

The code this site runs on is published separately under the AGPL-3.0 licence. These terms cover the journalism, not the code.

9Privacy

Our privacy policy describes how we handle personal information, including what we do with a tip and how we treat a confidential source. It is part of these terms.

10Availability

We do not promise the site will be available, complete or free of errors. It is published by students who also have classes and homework. We may change, suspend or shut it down at any time without notice.

11No warranties

The site and everything on it are provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy and non-infringement.

12Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent Arizona law allows, the paper, its staff and adviser, Vista Grande High School and the Casa Grande Union High School District are not liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising from your use of this site, including lost data, missed events or reliance on information that has gone out of date. Some jurisdictions do not allow these limitations, so they may not apply to you.

13Ending access

We may suspend or end anyone's access to this site, newsroom accounts included, at any time and for any reason. The sections on ownership, warranties, liability and general terms survive.

14General terms

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to its conflict of law rules. Where they conflict with school or district policy, the school's policy controls. If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest stay in effect. These terms and the privacy policy are the entire agreement between you and the paper about this site.

We revise them from time to time. Using the site after the "Last updated" date means you accept the revised version, and we note anything significant on the front page for 30 days.

15Contact

VGNews · Vista Grande High School
General: news@email.cdespalo.com
Room 214, Tuesdays at lunch
1556 N. Arizola Road
Casa Grande, Arizona 85122

Questions about this page go to news@email.cdespalo.com. The other policy is the privacy policy.