Censorship in high school publications

Since I worked with two students from McPherson High School this summer, I found news of a story being censored from the student newspaper particularly interesting.

The Student Press Law Center reports that a story about two pregnant teenagers was censored from a recent issue: http://www.splc.org/newsflash.asp?id=1967&year=.

Kansas is quite unlike most states in the country in the rights it grants to student publications. While most public schools in the country operate under the Supreme Court's decision in Hazelwood, Kansas affords additional protections to the free speech rights of student journalists. (Coincidentally, the controversial student story behind Hazelwood also dealt with teenage pregnancy.)

Still, it's worth looking back at Hazelwood. The dissenting justices, I believe, expressed well why a handful of states like Kansas have laws offering additional freedoms to student journalists.

Writing for the dissent in Hazelwood, Justice Brennan said, "In my view the principal broke more than just a promise. He violated the First Amendment's prohibitions against censorship of any student expression that neither disrupts classwork nor invades the rights of others, and against any censorship that is not narrowly tailored to serve its purpose," wrote Justice Brennan.

The dissent concluded: "Instead of "teach[ing] children to respect the diversity of ideas that is fundamental to the American system," Board of Education v. Pico, 457 U.S., at 880 (BLACKMUN, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment), and "that our Constitution is a living reality, not parchment preserved under glass," Shanley v. Northeast Independent School Dist., Bexar Cty., Tex., 462 F. 2d 960, 972 (CA5 [291] 1972), the Court today "teach[es] youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes." West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S., at 637. The young men and women of Hazelwood East expected a civics lesson, but not the one the Court teaches them today."

I write more about student press rights, including links to the Kansas law for student journalists and links to what the Kansas Attorney General has said about documents and meetings that should be open to reporters, here: http://flinthillswriter.blogspot.com/2009/07/day-2-first-amendment-student-press.html. You'll also find information on the huge responsibility that comes with your additional rights as student journalists.


More on student press rights:

The Hazelwood decision in full: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/hazelwood.html
From the Student Press Law Center: http://www.splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=4