Carrying the Banner – Washington Student Free-press Rights Bill

Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines has introduced a bill in Washington that would further protect high school and college students freedom of press. This is a very exciting move. Legislator pushing student press rights from The Oregonian reports upon this bill’s provisions, its precedents, and its opponents.

Michigan – come on! You’re lagging behind! I guess we need some activist students and teachers to bring the issue to the forefront … which will unfortunately most likely mean that an issue provoking the activism will have to happen. California, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, and Massachusetts have all passed similar laws for high schools as the one being proposed in Washington.

Apparently, many of these bills/laws are responding to the 2005 Hosty vs. Carter ruling. That ruling gave administrators in the Midwest the right to review student run newspapers if the papers are published under the name of the university. Since this law seems to be dealing primarily with college students, it is interesting that so many have also invested high school students with rights. Apparently, according the the article,

“in 1977, California adopted a law providing high school students with strong free press protections. It expanded that law in 1992 to extend that protection to private schools and to student speech activities outside of student media.”

Hmm. Thats pretty progressive. Washington has a lot of precedent to follow. Is this bill going to help or hurt Education? I mean, NCLB was supposed to be a wonderful help to providing our children with the best education possible. Is this another politically drafted bill that educators are not in favor of?

Well, what exactly is Upthegrove’s bill proposing?

“High school principals could still ask to see student publications before they went to press, but wouldn’t be able to censor or stop publication unless the material was obscene, libelous or slanderous. School officials would not be responsible for what the student publications printed, and could not be sued unless they altered the content.”

That sounds reasonable to me. Though not technically adults, high school students should be responsible for their own work and officials shouldn’t be punished. Students should be able to publish what they feel is important, so long as it isn’t “obscene, libelous or slanderous”. Granted, I have biases I’m probably not even aware of, but this bill seems perfectly reasonable and non controversial.

But, if it is common sense, why have so few states adopted similar measures protecting their students’ 1st Amendment rights? In my own high school experience, students’ clothing (and what is printed on it) is censured, students’ speech is censured, and, as I mentioned in a previous post, the newspaper also came under criticism. (Of course, these were all censurs to a certain extent – most of it I agree with). Students often feel that they have no control over their education. If high school students care enough to create a school newspaper, if they care enough to write articles and draw cartoons meaningful to them, why should we discourage this? As ‘our nation’s future’, shouldn’t we encourage them to develop and form opinions and safe ways to broadcast them?

Apparently, many principals would disagree with me.

“But Gary Kipp, executive director of the Association of Washington School Principals, said that most principals would be very concerned about the measure. He noted that schools exercise control over what material drama and choir classes perform.

“‘Schools have not given kids free rein to include in there anything they want to include just as long as it’s not libelous,’ he said. ‘I’m not sure why we would need a bill that would put student newspapers in a different category.’”

Kipp raises an interesting point. Should newspapers be different than drama and choir material, in regards to student freedom? I would extend the freedom of press/speech to include drama and choir, personally. But, where do you draw the line? I’m not sure. I can only hope that Upthegrove’s bill is passed and works. Hopefully it won’t turn out to be like Communism (great in theory, lousy in practice). 

“Legislator pushing student press rights.” by Rachel LaCorte. The Oregonian. Jan 28, 2007. See full article.

crossing the boundary between school and home

Having decided to tackle the topic of students’ right to free speech, I began to scan headlines for likely articles. I had some trouble at first, but Omegaword came through for me. Granted, this is an older blog, but still Why Johnny Won His Case is extremely relevant. Omegaword addresses the issue of:

“How far school administrators can extend their sphere of influence before running afoul of constitutional law.”

Apparently, school administrators have mistakenly been trying to censure students’ writing outside of school or school activities, especially on the internet and through email. However, Omegaword points out that, according to the Student Press Law Center’s Student Media Guide to Internet Law,

“Students, like all citizens, have strong First Amendment protection when it comes to expressing themselves off-campus. Public school officials cannot legally censor or punish a student for posting a personal homepage or weblog, publishing a Web-based “zine” or using a personal account to send e-mail outside of school from a home computer, even if the subject matter of the site is school-related or offensive. However, if the student accesses the Web site at school or urges others to do so, that activity could be treated no differently than any on-campus distribution of an independent publication.”

I am very glad that Omegaword included this quote, for it brings all kinds of questions and possibilities to my mind. For instance, apparently students cannot be punished for writing whatever they choose – be it vulgar or subversive or anything else – when they write/publish it on their own time on their own equipment. Hmm. What if other students access this writing on school grounds? Are they in trouble for reading it? Is the author in trouble, if they did not encourage the reading? And, for that matter, why is it wrong for a student to encourage classmates to read his or her work if they are in school?

One problem I had with Omegaword’s blog is that he/she did not provide any real life examples of school administration censorship. I guess I will just have to deal in “supposes”. I agree that students should not disrupt the learning environment of a school at the cost of their freedom of speech – to a certain point. Vulgarities and ignorant hate are not appropriate, but if a student, if Bob feels that his U.S. History teacher is not doing his job well … if Bob cares enough to write about it in his blog … how would it be wrong for Bob to show his blog to his friends in the school library during lunch?

The internet has opened up all sorts of possibilities for communication and expression. I think that it is wonderful that students’ First Amendment rights are protected as they are, because they (especially high school students) are preparing to enter the real world, and part of their education is forming opinions and learning how to express them in a constructive manner. I would think writing would be encouraged as a way to vent emotions. Not all emotions need to be broadcasted, but high schoolers should feel that they can share their thoughts and that they can make a difference. They are citizens of the U.S. and I’m glad the government is giving them the chance to exercise their rights outside of school censure (though I do think that it is slightly limited).

“Why Johnny Won His Case” Omegaword. November 4, 2006. Read full article.