Double negatives

Most of the times I'll clean up HS kids quotes to a point ("I saw" rather than "I seen"). Sometimes, you can't or it will be obvious what you did.
When I quote people saying what they actually said, I get a phone call from my paper telling me that I have to be careful because it will seem racist, even when it isn't.
My response is usually, "so you don't want me to quote them verbatim?"

 

ace makes a good point. if a quote isn't good, don't use it. i think writers feel like the more quotes they get in, the more people will say, hey, he got a quote, he must be working hard. but no one actually makes that distinction. just run with what works, even if that means paraphrasing.