by McKayla Holson, Editorial Editor
Student Press Freedom Day is Wednesday, January 29.
According to Student Press Law Center, Student Press Freedom Day is “a national day of action when we celebrate the contributions of student journalists and highlight the need to support their independence without censorship or threat to their advisers. We mark the anniversary of the Hazelwood decision, and call upon elected officials to bring sunlight back to student journalism.”
Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier
SPLC mentioned marking the anniversary of the Hazelwood decision. What is the Hazelwood decision?
To understand, step back to 1988 and into the shoes of student journalists at Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis Missouri.
Imagine working on articles and putting a paper together, submitting it to the principal for review and then discovering that the principal deleted pages, without your knowledge, that contained stories about the impact of divorce and peer experiences with teen pregnancy.
I, personally, would be upset.
The students took to the courts because they felt they were being censored for no reason and their freedom of speech rights were violated.
After the case made its way all the way up to the top, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 decision that the principal did not violate the free speech rights of the students.
Basically, the Supreme Court said the school could prevent articles from being published that were deemed “inappropriate”. The Supreme Court also argued the newspaper was not intended as a public forum, but a limited one for the students’ journalism class, and therefore could be censored by the principal.
I don’t agree with this ruling.
Of course, I haven’t read the articles that were deleted, but I don’t see anything wrong with the topics.
I understand that times were different back then, but I still don’t see how the topics would be seen as problematic by the principal. If teen pregnancy was an issue at the time, why not educate the student population?
That’s what news articles are meant to do, they educate and inform. Sometimes they even entertain.
As for the article about the impact of divorce, that is the same as writing a paper over the effects of nicotine on the mind. To me, it is just an informative paper that gives a look into the impact a divorce has on somebody. Again, I don’t see why it needed to be deleted from the pages of the paper.
New Voices
The SPLC website says the legacy of the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier case is a shameful one, and I have to agree.
According to the site, students from across the country are demanding reform.
In fact, the New Voices movement is pushing for laws that counteract the Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier.
New Voices is “a student-powered nonpartisan grassroots movement of state-based advocates who seek to protect student press freedom with state laws,” according to the SPLC
14 states currently have laws that protect the First Amendment rights of student journalists.
The First Amendment deals with freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition.
The amendment states, “congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Student press is still press and the freedoms and rights of students need to be protected.