In the 1988 case
of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, the Supreme Court sought to clarify whether principals can censor school publications. (Whether the court actually succeeded in doing so is debatable.)
The case began when student journalists at Missouri’s Hazelwood East High School sought to print two edgy articles—one focusing on the effects of parents’ divorce upon students, another examining the issue of teenage pregnancy at the school.
The principal, upon review of their page proofs, deleted both articles from the issue before publication. The student journalists, angered by what they viewed as a blatant imposition of censorship, went to court. In the end, they lost.
In a split 5-3 decision, the Court ruled that the principal of Hazelwood East did have the constitutional grounds to censor the school newspaper because the paper itself, which was produced as part of a for-credit journalism class, was not a “forum for public expression” but was rather a “regular classroom activity.”
As such, the paper deserved not the broad protection offered to the free press under the First Amendment, but rather the much narrower protection offered to students in a classroom setting, where “educators are entitled to exercise greater control.”
The court majority then offered a very broad set of specific circumstances in which school officials would be justified in censoring student publications—cases in which the material in question was “ungrammatical, poorly written, inadequately researched, biased or prejudiced, vulgar or profane, or unsuitable for immature audiences.”
Critics blasted these standards as far too broad and subjective in nature; what, for example, would prevent a school principal from rejecting a critical article on the spurious basis that it was “poorly written”? In practice, the Hazelwood decision gave school officials a great deal of power to regulate the content of the student press; student press freedom advocates argue that it gutted students’ protections under the First Amendment.
But there is a catch. Not wanting to make quite such a blatant attack on students’ First Amendment rights, the Supreme Court in Hazelwood couched its judgment in that odd distinction between a “forum for public expression” and a “regular classroom activity.”
In practice, of course, most high school papers have functioned as both; the Hazelwood decision explicitly argued that a school publication that had established itself as a “public forum” would be entitled to broader protections under the First Amendment. Hazelwood East’s paper just didn’t happen to meet that standard. Student journalists and their faculty advisers across the country have been wondering whether or not their own papers qualify as “public forums”—and thus whether or not their publications have First Amendment rights — ever since.
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The Supreme Court has refused to accept subsequent cases that might have helped to clarify the vague Hazelwood standard. In the absence of a clear statement from the court, the general presumption since Hazelwood has been that most high school papers do not have full-blown freedom of the press, but that most college papers (which typically are not produced as part of the academic curriculum) do. However, in 2005, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago applied the Hazelwood standard to a college paper for the first time, ruling in Hosty v. Carter that Governors State University in Illinois did have the right to prior review of the school’s previously independent newspaper. In 2007, the Supreme Court refused to hear the Illinois students’ appeal.
That means that as of today, college publications in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin — the Seventh Circuit’s jurisdiction—may be subject to censorship under the Hazelwood standard, while college papers elsewhere in the country are not.
Clearly, it’s an understatement to say that the current state of student First Amendment law is a bit of a mess. Even the simplest question lacks a simple answer: Do students today have a First Amendment right to the freedom of speech and press?
Maybe. Maybe not.
Question from a parent:
My son is editor of his school newspaper. Last month his principal didn’t like an article that a reporter wrote, so he made my son take it out before printing the paper. Can he do that? Why or why not?
Answer:
Looks like he already did. What you really want to know is: 1. was it legal for him to censor high school writing? and 2. in the future, how can your son prevent the principal from trampling students’ First Amendment right to a free press. According to the legal eagles at the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), it depends. That’s because the law treats these cases differently based on whether the K12 grades school is private or public and whether or not the publication is an official product of the school.
Two Supreme Court decisions — Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier and Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District — define the level of First Amendment protection public high school students are entitled to. Together, these cases define the questions that must be asked and the standards school officials must meet before they can legally censor.
Basically, if your son’s paper is not sponsored officially by the school, or if it has established an “open forum” where students have been given the authority to make their own content decisions, then your son may have been illegally censored.
In order to legally censor, school officials must be able to show that their censorship is based on a reasonable forecast that the article would have caused a disruption of school activities or an invasion of the rights of others.
So, can principals censor school newspapers?
Yes. the principal can censor the school newspaper. Freedom of speech can and is limited in certain circumstances (can’t yell fire in a crowded building, can’t libel or slander) and a school newspaper is one place where that freedom is not absolute. The school administration must weigh the concerns of several constituents including the parents, teachers, students and the community at large. If publishing something in a school newspaper causes undo concern among one or more of these groups or if its publication would disrupt the learning atmosphere of the school then the principal has a right and duty to edit the publication accordingly.
What can you do to stop it? Why don’t you ask for a meeting with the principal and ask him or her that very question. Find out what the objections are and what you need to do to put the administration at ease. You’ll likely learn a valuable lesson in the way the real world works.
Are you still confused? The answer to the question “Can the principal censor the school newspaper?” lies somewhere in the middle.
The best approach an adviser can take is to level with the principal and establish ground rules. Tell the principal you will not embarrass the school or the school district and you should be trusted to make decisions. Tell him/her that you will bring everything to the principal for prior approval if that’s what is decided, but it must be done quickly because turnaround in journalism is important. Deadlines must be met.
It is hoped that this “heart-to-heart” talk with your principal will pave the way for an amicable relationship — for years to come.
Faculty Advisers Increasingly Face the Ax for Not Censoring High School Papers
Student Journalism | A Guide to Rights and Responsibilities from The New York Times The Learning Network
It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
* What’s around you? Bulletin boards, desk tops, pictures on the wall, file cabinets, etc., How does the sunlight stream into the room? And how does all this relate to the interviewee?
DON’T USE DESCRIPTION JUST FOR THE SAKE OF USING DESCRIPTION It should have some connection to the person and his/her environment.
Direct quotes should be used: if the interviewee’s language usage is particularly picturesque or when it is important for written information especially interpretive information ? to come from an obviously authoritative voice.
You must make sure the reader KNOWS the interviewee is an authority. They may be used to answer the questions “why, how or so what.” Use a direct quote after a summary statement or paraphrase that needs amplification, verification or example.
Young people today hang out on the Internet. And that’s where they get much of their information about their interests, some of which may be NEWS. Even if news is not their No. 1 priority, it seems important that high school publications have an online presence. Some staffs will merely upload their print publications. Some will go beyond.
The Accidental Journalist 