Know Your 1st Amendment Rights

In his talk today to the Reynolds Institute High School Journalism teachers, Ken Paulson pointed out that about 98% of Americans do not understand all of their five 1st Amendment rights: freedom of spech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion, the right to assemble in groups, and the right to petition the government to redress a perceived wrong.

As journalism teachers, we have a special obligation to understand our right to freedom of the press, which can have a huge impact on how we handle a 1st amendment situation. Earlier this year, my journalism students conducted a survey on drug usage at my high school, Simi Valley High. Our Superintendant of schools did not want us to conduct the survey because she considered it too sensitive an issue and I was told not to do the story. Rather than put th estory in moth balls, I very politely referred her to the Student Freed Expression Law in California, which has been on the books since 1977, along with a clause in the law that protects student journalism advisors from retaliation from school administrators. I also sent her a directive from the California Department of Education making it clear that school districts do not have the right to prevent stories that they consider too sensitive to print.

The end result was that she agreed that we had the right to run the story, although she did make it clear that the issues was a sensitive one in Simi Valley and hoped that we would handle the issue with proper discretion. The bottom line is that by knowing the law and acting in an appropriate manner, our freedom to print a sensitive story was protected.

How do you find out the laws in your state, if any, that protect student journalism? The best place is the Student Press Law Center (splc.org), which has a list of student press laws throughout the country. If you have an issue, you can also ask for legal assistance. The press jealously guards its freedom of the press and the SPLC exists to help student journalism programs protect those rights.

-- Steve Caswell
   Simi Valley High School
   Simi Valley, CA