Fighting High School Censorship

High school is often the place where young people think seriously about their legal status for the first time. It's where the childhood cry, "That's not fair," becomes the adult assertion, "I've got my Constitutional rights!" How young people see those rights treated by those in charge is a formative political experience.

In too many cases, a combination of restrictive court decisions and a conservative political climate have reduced student freedoms to the right to remain silent. But students, and some supportive teachers, continue to wage battles against censorship and for free speech inside schools and on student publications. One of their strongest allies, the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), can be found on the web at http://www.splc.org.

The SPLC is a non-profit advocacy group providing legal support and information to students and teachers facing free speech issues. A lot of the resources previously available through the Center's publications or their phone hot line -- (703) 807-1904 -- can now be found at their web site. These include such useful features as the "top ten questions student journalists ask about their rights," updates on current incidents and legal cases, and model student publication guidelines to help students and advisors negotiate a framework for free speech with school authorities.

There's also an On-Line Legal Clinic, which breaks down relevant information into various categories (public, private, high school, college media, etc.). Guides to copyright law and public access information laws are available, including a "fully automated, fill-in-the-blanks" form for generating requests to state or federal agencies for information. Another on-line request form makes it easy to submit legal questions or other inquires by E-mail.

A related site worth checking out is The Bolt-Reporter at http://reporter.bolt.com, which describes itself as "America's On-Line High School Paper." The site invites high school students from around the country to submit articles and take on assignments (and pays students $25 for articles it uses). While many of its news and feature categories cover familiar territory (youth news, music, movies, relationships), it also has a "Banned on Bolt" section which publishes stories that have been censored by high school administrators.

Recently, The Bolt-Reporter published a story by students in Blue Springs, MO, about cigarette sales to under-age teens. The story had been censored by the principal because it named two grocery stores which had made sizable donations to the school in the past. Another banned story dealt with a teacher in Naperville, IL, who had been convicted of sexual harassment. In both cases, student persistence in not caving in to the initial acts of censorship at the school level and seeking other avenues for publication on the web and in local papers (which picked up the stories) helped generate support for student rights to speak, write, and publish.

A recent SPLC poll found that less than half of those asked thought that "High school students should be allowed to report controversial issues in their student newspaper without approval of school authorities." With public support for student free speech lukewarm and schools keeping a tight lid on the first amendment, resources like The Bolt-Reporter and the SPLC are more valuable than ever.

Suggestions for Ed-Web? E-mail: StanKarp@aol.com.