By Jack Kelly, Business and Publishing Editor
& Kate Kelly, Reporter and Designer
The Washington State Senate is considering a bill which would expand First Amendment rights in regards to student publications on public high school and college campuses.
By definition, the First Amendment protects a number of civil liberties, among which are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. The bill, denoted as SB 5064 holds that “public high school students have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press in school-sponsored media.”
In other words, this bill prevents a public school’s administration from restricting a student-run newspaper’s ability to publish a story.
With this freedom comes some key restrictions on media. The bill does not cover content that is determined to be libelous, slanderous, or a breach of an individual’s privacy. Also not protected is press that violates any federal, state, local, or school law, or incites students to do so.
This bill has potential to make a significant impact on student free press across the United States, allowing editors and reporters to write freely, without their opinions and reporting being unjustly shut down by the school system or the principal.
This would not be the first bill offering students this freedom. California already has such a bill on the books. Under Education Code 48907, high school newspapers are able to publish whatever they choose as long as the content falls within the confines of press law.
While it may seem obvious that students are protected by the Bill of Rights, there are several legal precedents which indicate otherwise.
In the 1985 case TLO vs. New Jersey, a student, labeled “TLO,” who was suspected to be in possession of cigarettes, was searched without a warrant. The search found “TLO” in the possession of the illegal substance Marijuana. The school then used the marijuana as evidence against the student.
“TLO” argued that because the school official failed to obtain a warrant, the evidence should be dismissed, citing the exclusionary rule of the Fourth Amendment which deems evidence that is found during an unconstitutional search is dismissable in court.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey and held that the exclusionary rule of the Fourth Amendment does not strictly apply to student searches.
Another very applicable example is the 1988 case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. In this case, two articles of a school’s student-run newspaper were redacted at the order of the school’s principal. The students took the conflict to court, arguing that the First Amendment’s protection of speech and press gave them the right to publish the controversial articles.
SCOTUS voted in favor of the Hazelwood School District, deciding that the school can hold students to a higher standard of speech, and thus, student newspapers do not have true freedom of speech or press.
These two cases set the precedent that schools are a separate space, where the rights granted to U.S. citizens by the Constitution do not apply to students.
In fact, issues over freedom of press have been contested here at VHS.
“There was a case a couple years ago before Danny Rock was principal where a whole feature in the newspaper was censored because it talked about teen pregnancy,” said Editor-in-Chief Madison McCann. “Instead of taking it out and having to redo all of the work that they had already done, [the staff and adviser] just blacked out all of the writing that they had done and put [the word] ‘Censored’ on top of it.”
Under this new bill, a principal would not have the authority to censor a school newspaper without legal justification.
Student journalists on The Riptide staff support the bill.
“I really like it,” said McCann. “I think it will give student journalists a chance to express their opinions more freely without worrying about administration.”
Managing Editor Anne Kehl agrees.
“Limiting a student’s right to publish what they want in a newspaper is similar to telling anyone what they can and can’t say out of their mouth,” said Kehl.
Currently, the bill is sitting in a WA Senate committee.
“Once we get out of [the current] committee… it would go into the Rules Committee,” said Kathy Schrier, Executive Director of the Washington Journalism Education Association. “The Rules Committee decides whether or not it goes for a vote on the floor. If the Senate votes on it… then it starts all over again in the House.”
In short, the bill still has quite a ways to go until it is considered to be signed into law by the Governor.