[WikiEN-l] School Districts and notability

[Will Beback]

Charlotte Webb wrote:
> On 5/22/07, Angela Anuszewski <angela.anuszewski at gmail.com> wrote:
>   
>> My earlier reading made me consider whether or not school districts
>> are notable simply because they exist, or some more significant event
>> or achievement should be required to create or retain an article on the
>> subject.
>>     
>
> If a wealth of verifiable information about a school or district...
>
>
> If information exists, somebody will add it. Try not to be too quick
> in completely writing off certain topics. Stub templates exist for a
> reason.
>
> —C.W.
The inclusion of non-notable schools is not, by itself, the problem.

The real problem we have on Wikipedia with school articles, in my 
opinion, is the amount of vandalism they receive relative to the number 
of editors repairing them. Since school-aged kids are a main source of 
vandalism this isn't a surprise. However since this vandalism often 
takes the form of derogatory remarks about living people it's a serious 
matter. Reducing the number of school articles which aren't being 
watched would help.

I tried "prodding" a vandalized article about a junior high school and 
found that there are editors who watch the PROD category just to remove 
school articles. While I appreciate that the matter of school notability 
is hotly debated, I don't think anyone likes having hundreds or 
thousands of school articles that are unattended targets of libelous 
vandalism. Other than reducing the number of school articles I don't see 
a good solution. Perhaps a compromise would be to favor merging school 
articles into school district articles.

Will Beback