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I’m on the student newspaper and I wanted to find out why my school made so many changes to our school lunch program recently. I submitted a FOIA request asking to see all of the principal’s email messages in the past year. The school told me it was going to charge me $5,000 to turn over the emails! I can’t afford that, so I can’t do the story. Is this right? Can the school charge me this much? Aren’t the emails public info?

In general, a creative work like a photograph is owned by the creator of the work, even if they are a student journalist. However, the school might have some rights to use a student journalist's photos, especially if they signed an agreement.