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FREEDOM OF THE PRESS by Elfrieda Hiebert

The document discusses the differences between freedom of the press for professional publications versus student publications in schools. While the First Amendment protects against government censorship of the press, schools that fund student newspapers are considered private publishers and can censor content they see as inappropriate. The Supreme Court case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier established that schools can censor school-sponsored student expression, like articles in a school newspaper, if they have valid educational reasons for doing so. This ruling leaves questions about fairness and what it says about limiting free speech for students in an educational environment.

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Ginnie Faustino-Galgana
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1K views1 page

FREEDOM OF THE PRESS by Elfrieda Hiebert

The document discusses the differences between freedom of the press for professional publications versus student publications in schools. While the First Amendment protects against government censorship of the press, schools that fund student newspapers are considered private publishers and can censor content they see as inappropriate. The Supreme Court case Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier established that schools can censor school-sponsored student expression, like articles in a school newspaper, if they have valid educational reasons for doing so. This ruling leaves questions about fairness and what it says about limiting free speech for students in an educational environment.

Uploaded by

Ginnie Faustino-Galgana
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ELFRIEDA HIEBERT, “FREEDOM OF THE PRESS?

”
[1] The First Amendment of the US Constitution gives newspapers, magazines, and other publications
the right to print whatever they see fit, without interference from the government. The framers of the
Constitution felt that a free press is vital to a democratic society.
[2] This important idea breaks down when schools are involved. As it turns out, there’s a difference
between “free press” and high school newspapers.
[3] The difference is technical. The First Amendment prevents the government from censoring the
press. However, private publishers can censor whatever they want. Since schools and school
districts pay the student newspaper’s publication costs, they are private publishers. This means that
they can edit information as they see fit. They can even refuse to publish some articles.
[4] This is a tough lesson for budding journalists, some of whom have challenged the restrictions. One
case even made it to the Supreme Court, in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier.
[5] Here are the facts. In 1983, students at Hazelwood High, a public high school near St. Louis,
Missouri, saw two pages missing from their school newspaper, The Spectrum. They found out that
the principal, Robert Reynolds, had removed two of the articles after finding them unfit for
publication. One article, about teen pregnancy, contained interviews with pregnant students whose
names were changed; the other article dealt with divorce.
[6] Principal Reynolds said the pregnancy article was not appropriate for a high school audience. He
was also concerned that the girls’ identities would have been revealed in such a small school. His
problem with the divorce article was that it was not “fair and balanced.” He felt it criticized parents
without providing their side of the story.
[7] Some students were outraged and sued the school. They argued that the issue was not the content
of the articles, but whether or not the school had the right to suppress them.
[8] In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in favor of the school. The ruling said that while the students
“do not shed their first amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate,” no school should tolerate
activities “inconsistent with its basic educational mission.” In other words, when student expression
is school-sponsored, it can be censored - as long as those doing the censoring have valid
educational reasons. The law now varies from state to state. States that disagree with parts of the
ruling have their own laws that govern students’ freedom of expression.
[9]We are now left with these critical questions: Is it fair for some students to have greater freedom of
speech in their high school newspapers when others are subjected to censorship? What does this
situation say about us as a society and a nation?
[10] The framers of the Constitution believed that if governments could censor opinions they did not
like, the public would be less educated. Given that schools are places of education, it seems
counterproductive to limit students’ free speech. The more opinions students are exposed to, the
better equipped they will be to handle the issues they will face later in life.

Source: Morell, Ernest, Ph. D., et al., myPerspectives English Language Arts 8 . USA, Pearson Education, Inc., 2017.

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