Student Press Law Center Let Someone Else ( Be the "Udge

student press law center Let someone else ( be the "udge

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( BY ELLEN BlONDER-COUfHESY I>lOUIRY MAGAZINE

The Student Press Law Center is not the only place students should look to for information about their First Amendment rights. The most important agent for freedom of the press is the press itself. With this in mind, the Center is sponsoring the Second Annual SPLC Journalism and Art Awards. We are encouraging high school and college journalists and artists to address First Amendment issues in an editorial, news anicle. feature or cartoon. Separate awards will be given for writing and art, and entries witt be grouped into high school or college categories. Winning entries will be publiShed in the Spring issue of S C together with a resume of the winners the national PL Report . To be eligible send us a copy of the newspaper containing your entry, published in a high school or college newspaper or magazine. Entries must be postmarked no later than March 15, 1980. Entry fee: A year's subscription to your student newspaper.

-- - - ENTRY BLANK - SPLC JOURNALISM AND ART AWARD

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__._ ...... _._. __ .. __...... ___ ...... __ ...... _____ . ..__ ._ ...... ___ . _ ..._._. ___ ..._. ___ . . ... __._ SCHOOL . . . _ .. . . . DATE ARTICLE NEWSPAPER ...... _ .. __ .. .. _.. __ ...._. PUBLISHED . _ ..______. _ ___ . ._ __ . _ _ ...... o Yes, I have placed the SPLC on my newspaper's mailing list BPLC Report Staff CONTENTS I!DfTOR Features Barton Gellman Pnl'1CO on rSlty 6 Student vs. Student: The Pen Against David Danner The Purse � sny BobStaake UntY8fSty 01 n Cal lorn 21 TYPISTS Whipping Boy: Dolores Risner Diana Ouill Battle Strategies jor Adviser Survival

DIRECTOR Michael D. Simpson 26 EXECUTIVE COMUlnEE Staake vs. The Supreme Court: Cartoon Feature

,; \ LEGAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE J , 44 Forum Theory: I ADVISORY BOARD Why Administrators Are Not the 'Publisher' OJ a School Paper Departments

Letters ...... 4

Report Card ...... 10 Access...... -'...... 12 til Advisers ...... 16 Censorship ...... 24

Government Action ...... 35 Libel ...... 40

Noteworthy ...... 48 c. Ajrerword ...... 50

---._--.----., ...,._------"-----,, ------,, ----._"-,---"."",, ..,,- Fali1979 SPLC Report 3 Letters Student Press Mystery Bill Law Center The Student Press Law Center is To the editor: the only national organization I read the Spring 1979 Report wit h devoted exclUSively to great interest. The story concerning H. protecting the First Amendment Frank Carey [High School)'s news­ rights of high school and college paper is accurate all except the last sen­ journalists. The Center is a tence and I know that accuracy is the national legal aid agency key to good journalism. providing assistance and The bill which former [Carey Clip­ information to student per editorj Miss Sofia Koutsouris left Journalists and faculty advisers with me was returned to her and never experiencing censorship and brought to my attention again. Our other legal problems. records clearly indicate it was nOI paid by our school and I do not know, and neither does Mr. [newspaper adviser SPlC Report John] Scibelli know, whalever hap­ SPLC Report, published three pened with the bill. 'No Big Deal' limes each year by the Student I know this doesn't really maller To the editor: Press Law Center, summarizes very much, but I thought you might I have two complaints to report current controversies involving like to know that in Ihe interest of ac­ about the story on my libel case against student press rights. SPLC curacy this is what really happened. the Iowa City Daily Iowan [see SPLC Report is researched, written Reporr, Vo1. II, No.2}. But despite the John E. London and produced entirety by characterization of me which my oppo­ Principal Journalism and law student nents seem to have provided, I am not interns and solicits student about to make a stink out of it. produced articles. drawings and One is a typo which has the effect of Never photographs. Please send saying exactly the opposite of what I matenals to: To the editor: said. I was quoted as saying thai I Please allow me 10 clear lip sorne Student Press Law Center wanted to set a precedenl that calling a misconceptions which appeared in the 1033 30th Street NW Jew or Zionist a "racist" was not libel· spring edition of the Report. First, [ Washington, DC 20007 ous per se. But obviously what I t<:>ld have never, NEVER predicted that 0 you was that it is libelous per se. hlch (202) 965-4 17 � The Cavalier Doily would operate at a is the point r wanted to make. A Simple loss next year. I have said that I aI'll Copyright © 1979, typo, no big deal. concerned about the financial future or Student Press Law Center. Also, when I wrote you in March to the newspaper-as well as any editor All rights reserved. answer your inquiry, I told you we should be. were about to have a hearing on the ap­ Yearly SUbscriptions to 1 have also indicated that while the peals. I told you where to write to get a the SPLC Report newspaper made a respectable pr�fit copy of the judgment and thought cost $5.00 for students. this year, next year and the years fight you'd have enough sense 10 do so. YO lI $10.00 . after that might not be as profitable. for non·students. apparently forgot, so your story IS Further, I never have refused to ac­ All other contributions are tax­ rat her incomplete. knowledge mail from the Media Board deductable. William Michelson of Directors. I was not in office long Coralville, Iowa The Student Press Law Center enough to get the mail, much less �e­ also offers for sale the Manual Fora" update. see p. 41. fuse to answer it. Only one Cavalier for Student Expression: The Daily editor-in-chief refused to �c­ First Amendment Rights of the knowledge the mail-that was Mike HIQh School Press $1.00 WE'VE MOVED! ViteI.. for (2-10 $ 75 each. Nelli address and phone: On another point. The Cavalier copies more than 10 copies $ 50 eaCh). The 1033 30th St. NW Daily was founded in 1890, not 1888. Washington, DC 20007 manual is presently being Richard F. Neel, Jr. (202) 965 -40 17 revised and expanded and Will Edilor-in-chief be available as a textbook in 1980. SPLC Report weli'omes leflers According to interview notes from from readers. Lellers should be last February, Neel told SPLC Report: Opinions expressed in signed typed and double-spaced. Be­ "This year the paper has been able /0 editorials and cartoons are not cause of space limitations, those operate at a small profit. However. necessarily those of the Student published are subject to abridge­ we'l/ probably be in the �ed neXI year Press Law Center. ment. because cost increases will be around nine percent...

.._ .. .. _-_.­ ... _.. ... _ ...• _._--_.... - -- -'-'-'-- - _. . 4 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards

As Robert Kennedy saw and listened 10 Ihe poor. The competllion. which Judges stud nl and so did the Journalists who !raveled Wllh him A roleSSlonal entries separately. Will award pnzes group 01 these Journalists founded the Rob n F In four categories prln!. elevlslOf, radiO. and Kennedy Journalism Awards program to photo Journalism The top prize In the student encourage and recognlz ouistandlng competition III be a three-month Journalism achievement In porLraYlng those aspects 01 internship In Washinglon, DC, and honorable American life that occupied so much of hiS mention and cllatlon Certltlcates Will be awarded alienI Ion Now In ItS eleventh year. 1\ IS Ihe largest o other outstanding ent nes single program 10 honor outstanding reporting on For an entry form and a complete set of rules, problems 01 the disadvantaged contact

Robert F Kennedy Journalism Awards 03530 h Street NW Washington, DC 20007 (202) 338-744 .

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by Barton Gellman It is an almost ageless truism: there is ministrators. 5t udenl journalists have leaders in recenl years have become bound to be some tension bet ween had to defend their editorial freedom more and more like their senior coun­ those who exercise political authorilY in the pasl against very predictable terparls. using money as bOlh the car­ adversaries-deans, presidents, and rOl and stick drive newspapers in di­ and those who criticize their perfor­ 10 mance in prin!. When newspapers dis­ boards of truslees. rections they find convenienl. agree too vigorously with public offi­ BUI school administrators are not But college edilors are beginning to cials, t hat tension often blossoms into the only ones nowadays clamping fight back. Most seem no more willing overl hoslility-even all-out war. down on Ihe average campus daily. to accept censorship by st udents than On college campuses, those "public They are increasingly rivaled as censors censorship by administralors. And just officials" have traditionally been ad- by elected officeholders from within as they have repeatedly taken adminis­ Ihe studenl body. (rative disputes to trial over I he pasl decade, they are now slarting fight Armed with expanded campus au­ 10 thorily-often including control of im­ the same legal baltles againsl studenl portant purse slrings-student govern­ governments. ments have acquired both the power and the will to Iheir colleclive foot put down on public controversy. Sludenl

The legal issues are, as one college vice-president observed, "quite inter­ esti ng. " To sl udenl journa i s. I 51 Ihough, those issues are of more than just academic concern-their con· tinued aUlonomy is al stake. "A press thaI operates under the Ihumb of gov­ ernmenl is not a free press," said an editor at Norlhem Illinois University. Her adviser agreed: "It has got to have a chilling effecl on the newspapers' in­ clination to ferret out and comment on miscues of student governments." But is a cut off of subsidies illegal? In the paSI few years, federal courts have held consiSlenlly that a slate-sup­ ported school administration cannOI legally kill-or even reduce-funding for a student newspaper b ecause of ils

"--- . .._ ..•. _ .. _- - ..._ ...... _ _ .•.• . _ .. _w._,. __ • _____.. _ ..--_._, .. ---.... _ . _. __ content. Whether a sludenl legislative body can do so remains an open ques­ lion. The editors and adviser of Ihe Pikes Peak Community Colle ge News aim to nnd oul. In a blockbusting test case wit h t re­ mendous precedential implications, they have filed suit in U.S. District Court to restore funding to the News. Former editor Martha Dyer-Allison, editor Vicky Evans, assistant edi tor Marie Moon and adviser Judith Olson seek to reverse a decision by the Pikes Peak student senate to remove the

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school administration that has been festering for over three years. " There has been harassment since the spring of 1976." says Olson. "The editor then discovered that three administ rators had been fired without due process, and the president was forced to rein­ state them. From then on, the News from the senatoriaJ -and thus The principle, contend King and president wanted to scrutinize all copy, the college-budget. Filed August 10, it Hobbs. is Ihat a state may not regulate but the editor refused. So in the fall, is the firsl case in which a newspaper free expression in an established for­ the presidenl Iried to change the college has chall�nged a subsidy cut off by a um. (See. Legal Analysis, p. 43). But publication policy from 'no censor­ studenl governmenl. how can the actions of a student senate ship' to 'no unwarranted censorship.' It is the inevitable result of an unfor­ be the actions of a state? Because, say He withdrew the attempt when the

LUnate trend. Tighten enough financial the two attorneys, the money con­ faculty-student governing council dis­ nooses around the throats of enough trolled by the senate is derived from covered this 'typographical' change." student papers and, eventually, some­ student fees-and the Colorado Attor­ After that, Olson says, the paper be­ where, somebody will go after an in­ ney General ' s office issued an opinion gan receiving more and more criticism junction. Even against fellow stu­ last year that student fees are state for its alleged "negativism." In de­ dents-popularly elected leaders. funds. Besides which, they say , the sen­ fense of the News, Olson ventures the At this Colorado community col­ ate's budget must be approved by the opinion that "it '5 a fairly decent lege, a war of allrition-dating back to school's administration and the State paper"-it has won 67 awards in the 1976-between the News and the Board for Community Colleges and past five years-but says it's "not a PR senate and administration climaxed in Occupational Education. sheet for the college ... a 5-3 vote by the senate last June 10 Having received no response to a let­ Nor does the adviser believe the stu­ end the paper's $12,400 subsidy. There ter of protest to the state board. Hobbs dent senate acted on its own. "The sen­ was no prior announcement that the and King filed suit against the entire ate vote was directly influenced by the subject would be broached, no repre­ budgelary hierarchy-the student sen­ administration," she charges. "They sentative of the News to defend the ate, Pikes Peak college council, school have been trying 10 quiet Ihis paper . funding. Just a terse resolution that the administration and state board. (Vice-President John Rodwick] has Pikes Peak News "projected negative Colorado Assistant Attorney Gen­ been working privately with various content," was "libelous," "inaccur­ eral JoAnn Soker, who will defend senators and making disparaging re­ ate," and "not represenlative of the against Ihe suit, said before the action marks, lot ally uncalled-for comments students," and would no longer have was filed thai it is by no means clear aboUI the paper, staff, and me." the privilege 0 f senate support. that the senate's funding cut off was a Rodwick, for his part, makes no se­ After all, the senate doesn'l have to state action. "Thus far I have yel to cret of his dislike for the News. He told VOle subsidies 10 a publication wilh find a case that answers that ques­ the Colorado Springs Sun, "There is which il fundamenlally disagrees, tion ," Soker said. "I do not agree that enough feeling on campus that the ad­ right? Wrong, say spokesmen for the [use of state funds] is necessarily a state viser to the newspaper is not doing her

News. Attorneys Donald King and action . " The assistant attorney general job properly-that her personal opin­ Larry Hobbs, representing, respective­ said she would not discuss her legal ions are affecting what is being written. ly, the student editors and adviser reasoning because of the likelihood of We are dealt with with contempt by Olson, argue that the same principle litigation. Mrs. Olson and her students." Rod­ that prevents administrators from cut­ According 10 News adviser Judy wick called Ihe senate's withdrawal of ling funds because of content also Olson, the suil is an outgrowth of a dis­ subsidy a "courageous" sland. stops student governments . pute with the student senate and the Nonetheless, Rodwick maintains

_- - - . _ - ...... _._- --_._ _ .. _...... _ .. _ . .. _._._ .. - _ .. _ ------:: Fall1979 SPLC Report 7 that "the Student Government deci­ big complaints from Iranians. Jews, Board of Trustees decided to allow dis­ sion was not the result of administra­ feminists, gays, radicals-just about tribution-but only after attaching a tive pressure," and denies he had any every campus group-about discrimi­ sticker warning that the article was foreknowledge of "that notable vote." natory advertising and editorial pol­ "questionable" and "offensive." In the end, the court wiJi have to icies. " Soon after, members of the Student decide. Meanwhile, dozens of student Before the ASC had a chance to act Government Associacion who were up­ newspapers around the country will on those complaints, though, some set by the fiction voted to kill all fund­ wait eagerly-and not a little bit an­ New University critics apparenlly took ing for Pegasus. "The SGA people felt xiously-for the ruling. If the Pikes mailers into their own hands. Stoner it shouldn't have been published. and Peak News is successful in its bid to re­ says that "for three consecutive weeks wanted to prove a point to the maga­ gain funding, it may well inspire a rash the paper was trashed" by groups ob­ zine-that taste should be more consis­ of similar suits before the federal jecting (0 its content. The first week. tent with that of other students," says an administrative spokesman. Its point made, the SGA voted to restore fund­ ing the next week. • Another financial struggle locked the Torch and the student government at St. John's University in New York. Escalating a year-long dispute between the two organizations, the student body president reportedly sought to confiscate the Torch's printing equip­ ment. The government wanted to pub­ lish its own paper, said Torch editor Tom Anderson, because "they didn't think we 'advertised' government enough." The attempted confiscation failed, however, as the Torch held the leases. So the SG president refused to sign re­ quisitions for the paper's printing costs, and the printer reportedly was not paid for months. The outcome of this squabble? Neither side could be i� reached during the summer. • Student government members at the University o.f Alaska at Anchorage were not quite so direct. When the Uni­ bench. If not, some other paper is Stoner explained, New University ran a versity Rep orter found itself in a cash bound to try the cause again, so great is feature on a wet T-shirt contest at a squeeze last spring due to slow pay­ the magnitude of the problem. Either local bar; the second week's edition ments from advertisers. the paper-as way, it seems inevitable that the issue was offensive to Iranians; the third­ it had in the past-sought help from will find its way into court again-and on March 6-was a humor issue that the student senate. This time, the sen­ soon. made fun of Jews, Christians, gays, the ate refused, and the Reporter stopped On the other hand, the Pikes Peak AssociatedStudents and the newspaper publication for two months. Some of case may avert the necessity of some li­ staff. the paper's staffers charged that the tigation, if the judge chooses to pro­ Some groups also threatened to sue lack of senatorial cooperation stem­ vide a broad definition of the powers the paper and student government for med from a running dispute over edi­ over content-if any-that come with "discrimination." Stoner concedes torial content. student government funding. That that "a court would not even consider question has been hotly debated on col­ such a claim," but contends that, as To break the deadlock, the Report­ lege campuses around the country. publisher, the ASC can regulate the er's editor resigned so his salary alloca­ tion could be used to pay production • At the University of California at paper's content anyway. New Univer­ costs. Learning that the Reporter Irvine, the Associated Students Coun­ sity disagrees that the ASC is publish· cil voted in April to withdraw a er, but a $20,000 price tag has appar­ would publish one final issue with "voluntary editorial assistance" from $20,000 subsidy to the New University ently taken the edge off their objec­ in retaliation for that weekly's alleged­ tions. the resigned editor, the senate repor­ tedly voted-paradoxically-to fire ly "discriminatory advertising and edi­ • Editors of Pegasus, the campus li­ torial pOlicies." The funds were re­ terary magazine at Delaware County him for not producing the required stored one week later, but only on the Community College in Pennsylvania. number of issues. The final issue came condition that a newly formed Com­ have lasted out a similar series of out anyway-without incident. munication Board have final authority aborted sanctions over content. When In some cases, student governments over the paper's content. the magazine published a short story do not go so far as to use financial wea­ "They didn't listen to what we said. about homosexual rape last fall, the pons against student newspapers. so we said, 'Hey, we're gonna take administration seized all but the first Though calling at first for the "com­ your money away,'" according to ASC copies distributed. At the behest of plete disbandment" of Ka Leo, the As­ Vice-President David Stoner. "We had some faculty members, however. the sociated Students of the University of

8 SPLC Report FaU 1979 Hawaii laler resolved only to "investi­ But students at Ihe City College of Moments after the Student Associa­ gate and analyze" the studenl paper. New York did more than just prolest tion's Finance Committee announced a ASUH crilicized Ka Leo for poor man­ when The Observation Post printed recommendation of zero subsidy for agement, inferior quality, negalivism, sexually explicit pictures of a woman the campus paper. No rthern Star lack of creativity and failure to achieve dressed as a nun. They destroyed half editor Mary Lynn Levandowski wilh­ "any degree of recogniti on in national the Post's press run and vOled to kill drew her funding request and walked competition during the past ten years." funding for the paper. out of the April 29 meeting. Dennis Suyeoka, the paper's sum­ As soon as the first issue of the Accusing the SA of trying to "con­ mer editor. isn't worried: "1 don't feel Post's controversial May 4 edition hit trol the newspaper's news and edilorial Ihere should be much concern over the streets, it was met with cries of out­ content by holding the purse strings," what ASUH threalens to do because rage and condemnation. Three stu­ Levandowski refused to defend her ASUH does nOI exercise any control dents-Frank Pagan, Modesto Alicia budget request before the student legis­ over Ihe paper." Suyeoka says the lators. "No longer wiJl we submit to ASUH members "are very frustrated the whims, fancies and prejudices of a with Ka Leo's coverage of their follies, handful of polilicians," she says. but Iheir problem is internal and can· "The difference SA Senator Jelf LeTourneau count­ nOI be solved by adjusting the news." between the Star's ers that the Star walkout was "irre­ At Purdue University, sludent legis­ sponsible and theatrical. If the univer­ Exponent actions and those of lalors sought to influence the sity goes over the books, they wiiJ find by similarly political means. They the Pikes Peak News in no need for subsidy anyway." passed a resolution of no confidence in Colorado is the Other SA senators apparently agree the Exponent at the end of April and with LeTourneau. SA Communica­ sought the removal of the paper's three difference between tions Adviser Mallhew Williams says lOP editors. The mOlion of no confi­ preventive medicine the student group passed a motion call­ dence "had to do with their coverage ing for a complete audit of the STar's of elections," says incoming president and corrective surgery. finances. The senate approved an ex­ Todd Keleher. "The Exp onent has a If you don't practice penditure of up to $5,000 to hire an in­ monopoly on Purdue students. They one, you may well be dependent consulting group to "study expected objective reporting. They the Star's operations." weren't gelling it and had no way of forced - eventually - to knowing thal." opt for the other." Beforevoting on theSlars-budget,the Student officers at Purdue also com­ senate had asserted thal Star articles n plained that the editors had "become "do not relleet the eth ic background participants in those events that make of students in DeKalb," and named a committee to investigate the problem news" and were therefore biased. That and Brian Thompson-gathered about of minority hiring al the Slar and set complaint originated when three 4,000 copies of the paper and burned up affirmative action guidelines. " editors filed for an injunction in Pur­ them in a metal trash can. "I don't This sort of political intrusion is pre­ due's student court against question­ want my money to have anything to do cisely what the Star hopes to escape by able practices of the Election Com­ wilh dehumanizing women and the going independent. In a front page edi­ mission. Catholic religion," Thompson says. torial the day after the senate meeting. Cindy Richards, one of the edilors A slim majority of CCNY students . Ihe Star wrote: "Determining Star ad­ who sought the injunction, says a dis­ agree with him. After gathering over vertising rates, assuming a seat on the tinction must be drawn bet ween her 3,000 signatures on a petition, the stu­ editorial board, and influencing the se­ conduct as a studenl and her conduCl dents passed a resolution depriving the lection of the Star's editor were among as an editor. "All three of us and filed Post of all fUlure funding from student the controls the has proposed. Re­ as students. They came back at us as aClivity fees. But New York publisher SA lations between t Star the editors by seeking our removal." Ralph Ginzburg, himself a veteran of he and SA continue to deteriorate . .. because Keleher does not accept the distinclion. several obscenity battles. immediately a "If she wants 10 take an action that stepped in and pledged to pay for the this relationship violates the spirit of free press. We refuse to allow this to makes news," the president says, "she Post's fall semester production. Mean­ continue ... should not be reporting il." while, Post editors. who have asked the The university's publishing board, New York Civil Liberties Union to re­ A Star spokesman says the paper which investigated the student govern­ will seek a student referendum to present them. will consider seeking a ment complaint, found the editors to. restoration of funds in court. provide for a bulk subscription by have done nothing wrong. So what is an editor to do? If no amending the SA Constitution. No t only student governments are Ralph Ginzburg comes galluping to the University President Monat reportedly exerting pressure on papers. Some­ rescue-and short of a lawsuit-how favors Ihe bulk subscripcion plan. times it's the students themselves. can a paper defend against this disturb­ For Ihis paper, then. the best defense At the University of Bridgeport in ing new trend of censorship by stu­ against censorship is clearly a good of­ Connecticut, over 100 Iranian students dents? Perhaps the most promising so­ fense. The difference between the Ihreatened to withdraw from the uni· lution, Ihough by no means simple, is STar's aClions and those of the Pikes versity and vowed 10 protesl every day to seek financial independence. Peak News in Colorado is the differ­ until The Scribe either shut down or That is what Northern Illinois Uni­ ence between preventive medicine and apologized for "racist stories" in its versity's Northern Star has done, corrective surgery. If you don't prac­ March 29 lampoon edilion. They never although no one can agree jusl who is tice one, you may well be forced­ followed through on their threats. breaking lies with whom. eventually-to opt for the other . •

------_. ._--- .. ------_ . _----_. .... __.. _-----_.. _-- ...... _._.. _-_ ..._ ..• _-- Fal11979 SPLC Report 9 Special recognition must be given to the Observation Post of the City Col­ lege of New York:. The May 4 edition By featured three photos of former editor Michael Simpson Nancy Meade dressed as a nun, engag­ ing in a grotesque sex aCI. Several out­ raged students collected and burned half the press run. The student body later voted 10 prohibit any future fund­ Birthdays and anniversaries are by their very nature times ing for the paper. Surprised? Not me. of retrospection and soul-searching. So it is with this fifth (See p. 9). anniversary of the founding of the SPLC. Can it beflve years? Our brochure marks the dale as Oc­ tober 1974. The movement hasn't even reached puberty. In­ deed, it was a scant 10 years ago that the Supreme Court first wrote high school students into the First Amendment. The Voice. an off-campus-we used The Center was founded by the Robert F. Kennedy Me­ 10 call them "underground"-publica­ morial after an exhaustive national study revealed that most lion of 50 or so students at Stuyvesant high school student newspapers were "trivial and innocu­ High School in New York City contin­ ous" -nothing more than public relations tools for school ues to set the standard for substantive administrators. Imporlantly, though, the study concluded scholastic journalism. The last couple that the cause of such triviality was student press censor­ of issues contained articles on the ship. Students wanted to address some of the substantive problems of gay youth, criticisms of issues affecting youth but were stilled by repressive school standardized testing, the legal rights of minors. improvement of the school officials. . Enter the Student Press Law Center. curricula and-my favorite-the an­ nual survey of teacher performance. We've educated, advocated and litigated, with but one Students were asked to grade their goal in mind: to upgrade the content of student publica­ teachers in seven areas (e.g. knowledge tions by freeing students to write about controversial issues of subject matter, responsiveness). The and serious problems. results were published in a "Report And we've won the court cases. Card" with teachers receiving marks I'll spare you the platitudes-the victory speeches. ranging from 57 10 97. There's no doubt we're on a winning streak. The courts have said that administralOrs cannot censor "controver­ sial" articles, fire "uncooperative" editors or even cut off funding to "upstart" student newspapers. But so what? A similar off-campus magazine­ this newly-acquired What have the students done with Kaleidoscope-produced by Philadel­ freedom? The results, ['m sorry to say, have been mixed. phia high school students recently assembled examples of recent efforts by I've student carried stories on mainstreaming journalists, both high school and college. Most represent A handicapped students, the decline of responsible, professional journalism. Some are merely exer­ gang violence, the slow pace of inte­ cises in infantile self-indulgence. But then the First Amend­ grating Philadelphia's schools. pros ment guarantees only a free press, not a responsible one. and cons of marijuana decriminaliza­ I've taken the rather large liberty of assigning a grade to tion and reform of rape laws. each endeavor reflecting my own judgment of the relative worth of each. All grades are final, subject onlv to the whim of the instructor. Here then are the good, Ihe bad, and, yes, the ugly. Compare with the above, if you will, the five articles appearing on the front c page of a Montana high school The Universil y of Maryland Dia­ paper-which shall remain anony­ mondhack published a 20-page supple­ mous: discussions of "ParenIS' Night" ment detailing the university budget, (two weeks away), student council including the salary of every university plans for a bike-a-thon and car wash, employee and an explanation of the fi­ the upcoming Junior-Senior prom, the nancial workings of the school. announcement of the new newspaper staff and a note about an "in-service" day for teachers. Last spring Joel Berg. a ninth grader at Kakiat Junior High in Spring Valley. New York, authored an article on the student drug abuse problem at his school. A press When school ofricials told Joel he , couldn't publish it in the school news­ �1 it law , �i paper-they called "sensationalis­ tic"-he delivered copies to two local papers. Both papers ran lengthy sum­ center 1 maries of his findings and gave exten­ , f sive play 10 the censorship controversy.

The staff of the Minnesota Doily published a June "humor" issue de­ voted primarily to an attack on Christ­ c ianity (Minnesota is heavily Catholic). including reams of sexually explicit copy. The issue was su fficiently offen­ sive to warrant a condemnation from Governor Albert Quie and hearings by the state legislature over the question of future funding for the Daily. (See p. 48).

Terri Nelson. adviser to the York­ town [Indiana) High School Broad­ cOSIer, deserves a special note of appre­ ciation. She put her job on the line last spring by refusing to obey her prin­ cipal's order to remove the "negativ­ ism" from the paper and reveal the names of students who had written cri­ tical (but anonymous) Iellers to the editor. When she was denied tenure for her stand , she sued her principal and won. (See p. 18).

I've taken a pretty hard line with those st udent papers that publish articles of questionable taste and social value. Don't get me wrong; non-libelous satire or "bad taste" is never a valid ground for censorship, and we'll defend you if need be. But it is in credibly irritating and frustrating 10 spend five years fighting for student press freedom only 10 see these rights abused by a distinct minority. As a lawyer-and a First Amendment absolutisl-I'm sympathet ic. As a journalist, I'm outraged. The danger , of course, is Ihat if the abuses continue, the judges may reas­ sess the recent extensions of free speech protect ions to stu­ dent journalists and curtail them. The bottom line is t his: if you're going to man the battle­ ments over press censorship, jf you're going to fight for the First Amendment. please let it be over something that matters-and nOI over some silly. juvenile prank. Thomas Jefferson would want it that way. •

Fali1979 SPLC Report 11 Access Closed Hearings on Their Way Members of the pu lic have no con­ b . st itut ional right atlend criminal 10 trials, according to an end-of-term de­ cision by the nation 's highest courl. J S , A closely divided u preme Court t , ruled in Gannell v. DePasquale that the Sixth Amendment gua ra ntee of a • public trial is a ri ght enjoyed by the ac­ - cused alone. Any judge may therefore . , , r close a pre-trial hearing to the press , 9fl and public when all participants in Ihe : r ' . r "- case agree it is necessary to ensure a ." \P fair trial, the court held . • Itt " f/I} ... 1\ Iff. ) n its decis on, the court upheld , 5-4 i . the decision of a New York t rial judge to close a pre-t rial hearing on the ad­ '�.I missibility of evidence in a murder I l , case . The Gannet t newspaper chain \ � had chal lenged the decision. . Th e Suprem e Court justices: Th eir decisions could close he courtrooms in Noting that the press had been given 1 over percent of criminal proceedings - the pre-trial hearings an opportunity to present its case and 90 01/ that Ihe judge had considered the com­ peting i nterests i nvo lved , Ihe ju st ices concluded that the First Amendment CIA Safe-For Now was outweighed by the Sixth Amend­ ment right to a fair trial. Federal courts have t urned down University Daily Sp ectator. The news­ The decision applies only to pre-t rial motions .by t wo college newspapers paper had originally filed an FOIA re­ quest on September for infor­ hearings, but could serve as authority seeking crA documents under the 22, 1977, wit h CIA-sponsored for fu ture decisions to close act ual Freedom of Information Act. Th at mation dealing req ui es federal agencies mind-control experiments during the trials whenever a judge believes publi­ J 974 statute r m 1960's. city would prejudice the defendant's to release non-classified infor at ion to n it The Sp ec/alor asked for a reply with­ rights. pe rso s who request [see SP LC Report, Vol. No . 2] . in 10 work ing days as req uired by the Even if Ihe court does not extend the II, statute. decision to trials as well. it will severely New Jersey District Court Judge J. The agency responded more than a limit CO Url access by mem bers of the D. Lacey ruled last Dece mber that an month later. sayi ng that the req uest press and public. Ab out 90 percent of FOrA request by Farl eigh Dickenson had not yet been processed . Another cri mi nal cases are disposed of before Universi ty Gaun tlet editor Marc J. four months passed before the paper trial. • Medoff was too b roadly worded for an administrative appeal. request­ the CIA to comply. Medoff filed the filed ing a response wit h in 20 days-also re­ re est ebr uary 1977 for copies of qu in F qu ired by star ute. Again the agency " all fi les that the CIA has on co ntacts, wro te back , saying that the request still approaches, and su rveillance" con­ had nOl been processed. ducted with members of the Fa rleigh That "lack of timely response, " the icken son cam pu s_ D Spectator co nt ended, co nstitutes a de Lacey said the CIA could not pos­ fa cto denial of the request. sibly comply with t he student's request But the C)A says that the time limits until "the mailer of the request was im posed by the FO I Act are un real ist i c made clear." The c(A did not raise the i n l ight of t he heavy backlog of re­ issue of specificity in its defense, and quests now pending before the agency. instead argued that, for reasons of na­ The court agreed , ru ling that "the tional secu rity. it could not con fir m or met hod employed by the CIA for pro­ deny the existence of material sought cessing appeals is orderly," and that by Medoff. Lacey did not ru le on thaI t he Sp ectator would have to wait its content ion. turn . In nother case, a Manhattan Dis­ Although the agency has not yet for­ a lrict Court judge r uled in March that mally denied the request , it so far has the CIA did not discri minate in process­ not released any of the requested infor­ ing an FOIA request by t he Columbia mation. •

.. . -- - . -..- .. -.--...... -.----- .. "."-- .... _ .. .. _----_ -----_ __ -... __ _ ....- -;-::12� --:;:-:::-:-SPLC-=--=- Repor--=t Fall-- 1979.------...... Access Youthful Thugs Beware The Supreme Court ruled June 26 "I think," Rehnquist wrote, "that a that a state cannot punish a newspaper general effect ive ban on publication for printing the name of a minor that applied to all forms of mass com­ charged with a crime. The decision will munication, electronic and print media probably apply to student newspapers. alike, would be constitutional.·· Striking down a West Virginia sta£­ None(heless, seven of the eight jus­ ute, Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote tices who took part in the deliberations for the majority that "if a newspaper fell that "(t]he magnitude of the state's lawfully obtains trutMul information interest in (his statute is not sufficient about a ma t ter of public signi ficance to justify application of a criminal pen­ then state officials may not constitu­ alty " to publishers. tionally punish publication of the in­ The case first arose when Th e Ch ar­ formation except to further a state in­ leston Daily Mail and the Charleston terest of the highest order." Daily Gazeffe printed the name of a 14- There was apparently some disagree­ ment , however, over what constitutes an "interest of the highest order." "[S]tate action to punish Joined by Just ices Brennan , Stewart, White, Marshall, Blackmun and Ste­ the publication of vens, Burger wrote that the protection truthful information of a juvenile's anonymity is not impor­ seldom can satisfy tant enough 10 justify suppression of the press. constitutional "[Sjtate action to punish the publi­ standards." cation of truthful information seldom can satisfy constitutional standards," his opinion st ated . year-old student alleged to have shot Justice Rehnquist disagreed and sug­ and killed his 15-year-old classmate at gested in a separate opinion that there Hayes Junior High School in St . may be constitutionally acceptable Albans, West Virginia. ways to prohibit reporters from print­ On March 1, 1978, a grand jury re­ ing the names of juvenile offenders. turned an indictment against the pa­ "In my view, a state'� interest in pre­ pers for violating a state statute that serving the anonymity of its juvenile provided for criminal penalties for the offen ders ...far oulweighs any mini­ publication of alleged juvenile uffend­ mal inter ference with freedom of the ers' names. press that a ban on publication of the The two papers filed suit in the West youths' names entails," he wrote. Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. Rehnquist said his only objection (0 challenging the constitutionality of the the West Virginia statute under ques­ statute. The court found that the law tion was that it applied only to newspa­ violated both the First and Fourteenth

., pers and thus violated the equal pro­ Amendments, as did the U.S. Supreme tection mandate of the Fo urteenth Court on appeal. Smith v. Daily Mail 1 Amendment . Publishing Co. • FLORIDA

• • • And You, Too, Parents i In a brea k with traditional policy. A state statute allows for the publi­ ;j the Boca Raton (Florida] prosecutor's cation of young offe nders' names if the office ha.� announced it will release the media can obtain them . The Florida .: ;;.- names of juvenile offe nders to the Freedom of Information Clearing­ media. house reported in April that Boca city attorney Al Galbreth interprets "publi­ Boca Raton is one of the first Flor­ cation " to include "shouting [the ida cit ies to make public t he names of names] from the steps of city hall or such offenders. Most others release the verbalizing them 10 the media." Srates may no lo nger prohibit /he names of parents of minors charged Local police are reportedly pleased publicarion of arresredyouths ' names with crimes. with the new policy. •

------_.. _-_ .._ ... _--,--- Fall 1979 SPLC Report13 Access

OREGON Board Gives in to Suit: No Review, Meetings Open

Set lling a two-month old lawsuit , the Gladstone [Oregon] School Board has agreed not to invoice any prior review of the high school newspaper, Roamin ' Scroll, and (0 limit any disciplinary ac­ tions against student journalists to matlers involving libel , obscenity. and substantial disruption or material in­ terference with school activity. Such discipline could occ ur only after publi­ cation of the offending material. The June 7 stipulat ion of sel liemen( ends a suit by Roamin ' Scroll staff writers SCOII Clark , Tracy Watson and Sandra Johns against their principal, adviser, school district superintenden! and school board. The students filed the suit April 9 after Clark was denied access to a school board meeting and ce nsored when he attempted to write about the den ial (See SPLC Report, Vol . II, No. 2] . "I'm satisfied with the se ttlement," Clark said. "Although you can bet in the fu ture I won 't be assigned 10 write minis( rators can legally censor their gen t Tr ibune, will cover school board about too many co ntroversial issues . ,. students' publicat ions. That opinion proceedings. As members of the pro­ The lawsuit asked that the U.S. Dis­ brought strong protests from several fessiona l press, Clar k believes, "We trict Court declare unconst itutional the journalism professors and scholastic can overcome problems of access." Gladstone student publications guide­ press groups. But he has no intention of quilling lines and to extend to student reporters Clark plans to start an underground the Roamin ' Scroll staff. "By staying t he same access rights as professional newspaper this fall. He says that the on, I'm beating them at their own newsmen. In late April, after the suit new paper, ten(ative ly called the Insur- game. " • was filed, the school board changed those guidelines to allow students to at­ tend all meetings except those dealing SUNSHINE LAWSUITS wi th st udent or teacher disciplinary ac­ tions or salary matters. Although the lawsuit stemmed from Partly Cloudy a meeting involving extra-duty con­ The Massachusetts Court of Appeals A new Jersey Superior Court ruled (ract s of teachers, Clark and ACLU at· held March 19 that a closed meeting of January 12 that the state's Open Meet­ torney Ron Fo ntana decided not to the Taunton (Mass.) School Com­ ings Law requires 48 hours notice of a challenge t hose exceptions. mittee did not violate that state's Open sc hool board meet ing, even when the The suit also asked that a critical let­ Meetings Law . because the meeting meeting is held under "emergency" fi­ ter by Roamin ' Sc roll adviser Li nda was held to discuss fu ture salaries and nancial conditions. Vogt be removed from Clark's fi le. working conditions of the school dis­ Despite testimony by the superinten­ The set t lement made no reference to trict's non-union employees. dent of the Newark School District as­ the leiter. however. and according to Since opening the session would sen;ng that each day 's delay of the Fontana, "it wi ll probably remain." have had " a detrimental effect on the meeting would cost the city $4() ,000, "It doesn 't maller," commented committee's collective bargaining posi­ t he judge ruled that the "adequate no­ Clark. "I'll just pull it out myself as tion ," the court decided it could be tice" provision of the law should have soon as I turn 18, anyway." held in secret. been followed because the meeting dis­ Defending school officials agreed to A ttorney General v. School Com­ cussed "public business ." the se( t lement despite a recent Oregon millee oj Ta unton, 5 MED. L. RPTR. Jen kins v. Ne ward Board oj Educa­ attorney genera l's opinion that sa id ad- 1073 (1979) . tion , 4 MED. L. RPTR. 2528 (1979). •

14 SPLC Report Fa ll 1979 , Access Book Bans Never in America� School board members in Chelsea, Tauro, " is the right to read and be ex­ The board had objected to the maga­ Massachusetts, decided they didn't like posed to controversial t houghts and zine's publica tion of advertisements Male and Female Under 18 in t hei r language-a valuable right subject to ror vibrators. co ntracept i ves, and ma­ high school library. They removed it. Fi rst A mendment protection. terials dealin g with homosexuality and In Nash ua, New Hampshire, they "The mosr errect ive an tidote 10 t he witchcra fl. didn't like Ms. magazine . They re­ poison of mindless orthodoxy is rcady I n his IS-page opi nion, Judge moved it. In Island Trees, New York access t o a broad sweep of ideas and Devine wrote that "despite protesta­ they didn't like Slaughter­ tions contained in Ihe tes­ house Fi ve, Th e Fixer, t i mony of [t he school Th e Na ked Ape and nine board} ...it is (he 'poli­ ot her works of fiction. tical' content or Ms. mag­ They removed them . azine more than its sexual Book banning is on t he overtones that led to its ar­ rise nationally, according b i t r a ry displacement. to some library associa­ Such a basis ror removal t io n s, an d organiza tions or a publication is consti­ like the Freedom to Read tut ional ly impermissible." Fo undation and the Or is it? Judge George American Ci vil Liberties Pratt in New York be­ Union freq uent Iy ri le law­ lieves just the opposite. suits to stop it. So rar, no He ruled August 2 that ed­ clear consensus on lhe is­ ucat ional authorities have sue has emerged from t he the discretion to remove rederal cour ts. book s t hey find object io n­ In t he three cases men­ able. Pratt said the action tioned above, three New "did not sharply and di­ En gland judges took con­ rect ly implicate basic First flict ing positions on t he le­ Amendment val u es . " gality 0 r the practice. In remov in g the books U.S. Dist rict Judge Jo­ from its high sc h o ol seph L. Tauro ruled in library , the I sland Trees July 1978 Ihat the Chelsea school board ca lled them H i gh School Committee " a n ti- Amer i ca n , a n t i ­ must return Male and Fe ­ Chri sti an , anti-Semitic male Under 18, a cont ro­ and j ust plain rilthy." The versial literary anthology, works included two Pulit­ to its l ibrary shelves. zer Prize winners. Com mittee members Judge Prall said t he had removed the boo k board's action "reflects a a rter readi ng " The Cit y to m i sguid ed educational a Young Gi r l ," one of t he philosophy" but "it does more graphic selections nOt const itu t e a sharp and from the anthology. Writ­ direct i n fri ngemen t on any ten by a J 5-year-old high First Amendment right." school student, t he poem Pratl added that "it fell describes in eart hy terms the gi r l 's re­ philosophies. There is no danger in ex­ within (he broad range of dlscrellon to vulsion at bei ng treated as a sex object posure. The danger is in mind con­ edu cat iona l orficials who are elected by by men on the street . I rol . " t he community" to determine which Andrew Quigley, committee chair­ Tauro also ordered the school com­ books remai n i n t he lib rary . man, had called the poem "obscene" mittee to pay Ihe plai n tiffs ' legal rees in Such sharp differences in opinion and said it is "low down dir ty rotten the amount of $27 ,300. between federal judges invites specula­ filth, garbage. fit on Iy for the sewer." In t he Nashua case, Judge Shane tion t hat the Su preme Court will even­ J udge Tau ro rejected Quigley's con­ Devine saw to it that Ms . magazine re­ t ual ly decide to rule on a book-banning ten tion that the poem is obscene: gai ned a customer against the cus­ case . In the meantime, the issue seems "Whether or not scholarly , the poem is tomer's will. Judge Devi ne ruled May 7 likely to remain muddled . RighI to challenging and thought-provoking. It that the Firsl Amendment prohibits Read Comm. \I. Chelsea School employs vivid street language, legiti­ Nashua School Board mem bers from Comm.; Salvail v. Nash ua Board of mately orfensive t o some, but cert ainly removing the re minist magazine from a Education; Pieo v. Board of Educa­ not to everyone." school library solely because rhey dis­ tion, Is land Trees Union Free School "What is at stake here," added approve of ilS content. District. •

-----'"'-" "" -,------. SOUTH CAROLINA Nothing Yet

But a Very Long Fight

Jobless for over a year and frus­ viser also pledged at the time no t to re­ trated by the delay, a fo rmer teacher of peat the move, which violates school English and journalism at McDuffie district policy. High School in Anderson, South Caro· Principal Wallace Reid decided Ihe lina, is still wailing for her lawsuil to teacher's promise was nol enough . and come to trial. told her on the spot he would not re­ Ruth Carlock, who also served as commend her for contract renewal in adviser to McDuffie's Th e Scotsman . the spring of 1978. says she was fired for allowing contro­ The early dismissal incident came in versial copy inlo Ihe school paper. Of­ the midst of a long-standing dispute ficials from Anderson County School over the content of The Scotsman . The District Five say they fired Carlock dispute centered on the fi rst issue of because she let students leave sc hool the 1977-78 school year, which con­ early without permission from the tained three co ntroversial ed itorials­ principal. "On Being Black at McDuffie," by A U.S. District Court in Greenville four black journalism students; will have to decide which version to be­ "Blaming the Victim," by ad viser Car­ lieve, because Carlock is suing for her lock; and " Huck," a gossip column. job, a year's back pay and attorneys' On Oc tober 31, Principal Reid sum­ fees. moned Carlock and student editor Filed December 8, 1978, her suil all­ Mike Cole to his office and criticized ges that Ihe school board violated her the three editorial pieces-especially First and Fourteenth Amendment Carlock's, which Reid interpreted as a rights by first dismissing her because of personal attack on himself. articles in Th e Scotsman and Ihen Soon after, the adviser received a let· denying her due process in an appeals ler of reprimand from District Superin· hearing. tendent William Royster . Royster The defending school officials-the wrole: "Your own article, 'Blaming principal, dislrict superintendent, and the Victim, ' was completely out of school board-contesl both charges . place, I f you have complaints to make While Carlock concedes she let her concerning you r own personal students leave early from school one problems. they are to be discussed with day, she notes it was the last day be fore the principal [em phasis original]." Thanksgiving break and says a major­ According to Carlock's legal com­ ity of the school's buses had already plaint, Dr. Royster also attacked "On left when she dismissed class. The ad- Being Black at McDuffie" and

.-;:--=-::,..,--=--==--_.-...... -.-_.. .•.. -..- ..- ..--- ..- ...... -...... -. ---- ...... ------...... --...... --" .•... .-- . -...... -.... ----.. --.---.-. .... - 16 SPLC Report Fa ll 1979 "Huck," wntmg that they were the type of journalism that could not be tolerated in District Five. The district superintendent wrote Carlock again on December 12, an­ nouncing a new publication policy that re quired all articles to be accurate and in "good taste." Royster did not de­ finegood taste. Nine days later, Royster told the ad­ viser her contract would not be re­ newed. Carlock's complaint alleges, and school officials deny, that the adviser's "exercise of her co nstitutional rights as author and sponsor of the student newspaper were a substantial faclor and the motivating factor" in her dis­ missal . Attorney T. Travis Medlock, who represents Carlock, supports that argu­ ment with a second-and as yet un­ proven-allegation: "Currently teach­

ing at McDuffie . .. are individuals not involved with the publication of the October 2S issue of Th e Scotsman who have violated the same policies" as Carlock, and yel who have not been fired . Michael Glenn, attorney for the school district, denied that school 0 ffj­ cials have any knowledge of ot her teachers making unauthorized early dismissals. He would not say whether the school board would dismiss another teacher if it learned the teacher had broken the rule. Carlock says she attempted 10 dis­ cuss this point at her dismissal hearing, and offered to document several in­ stances of early dismissal by other teachers. Her legal complaint states that "the Board deemed this line of questioning irrelevant to plaintiff's dis­ missal , thus prohibiting meaningful cross-examination.' , Due to these alleged violations of Carlock 's rights, Medlock asserts his Carlock, in a phone interview, was only way I'm going to go back to client has suffered loss of income, no more optimistic. saying "Mr. Med­ teaching is if I win the case," and that mental dist ress and damage to profes­ lock has never promised me anything may take years, Carlock said. "1 do sional reputation." but a very long fight ." feel the law drags. There 's nothing you But Medlock told SP LC Report he is In late July, Carlock said she had or I can do about it but it does move doubtful of winning the case on First just fou nd a new job as a social work­ very slowly .• , Amendment grounds. since the school er. "It's taken a year to find one be­ Although allorneys for both sides board may be able to document cause cause of a lack of references and all [he have laken a great deal of testimony in for Carlock's dismissal that is unre­ publicity given the suit," Carlock said. sworn statements. no trial date has lated to her exercise of free expression . "People are afraid if I win the suit I'll been set. Medlock said the case could Proving that school officials used that go back to teaching." come to a courtroom as early as Sep­ only as a pretext for fi ring the adviser. That is, in fact, exactly what the for­ tember or October. Carlock v. An­ Medlock said. will be difficult. mer adviser hopes to do. But. "the derson County School District 5. •

..---.-.-. --�-.-•.•.....•.•.... ----.-. ------_.__ .. _ .. _ ...... _ ...... _ ...... _ ...... _ ... _----- Advisers

INDIANA Board Buckles in Te nure Dispute After more than 20 hours of sc hool months before. Nelson had alread y the paper was Laws' only real objec­ board testimony, a massive student filed suit in U.S. District Court . tion to hcr tenure. protest and a federal lawsuit. Theresa Her sui(, filed with financial assis­ Laws offered to recommend Nelson Nelson has won back her job. tance from ( he Indiana Sta te Teachers for tenure if she would withdraw her Faculty advi ser (0 the Yorktown Association, asked that Laws be en­ suit against him. High School Broadcaster since 1974. joined from censoring the Broadcaster Nelson did not accept the offer . The Nelson recentl y seWed a $6.5,000 law­ suit agai nst her principal that for months immersed their small Indiana community in controversy. One day after the board had voted against tenure, The settlement, signed lune 25 , pro­ vides the ri rst respite in a highly publi­ over 200 students left school and staged a cized , ni ne-mont h-long baule be tween demonstration. All were given one-day suspensions. Nelson and a loose coalit ion of stu­ dents and parents on the one hand and the Mount Pleasant Sch ool Board on the other. or threatening 10 ri re her, and sought adviser's attorney. Wayne O. Adams At issue was the control of York­ $65 ,000 in damages. Ill, said the offer was u naccept able be­ town High's Broadcaster and Nelson's cause i t lacked a prom ise 10 protect the Bu( before Nelson's complaint came future as an educator in the Mount publication righ ts of students. to coun . (he school board held hear­ Pleasant system. ings over the principal's dismissal re­ Earlier, the school board had voted According to the text of t he settle­ commendation . un animously to grant tenure (0 the men t, the school board agreed: controversial adviser. They reversed Th e Indianapolis Star reported that • " t hat the student publications i n their vote upon learnin g (hat Nelson "hundreds of paren ts , students and this school corporation are protected had rej ected the settlement o ffer . (eachers rallied beh ind the jou rnali sm by the First Amendment;" This reversal implied (hal (he board adviser" in hearings that lasted into the • to "immediately grant [Nelson) a found her acceptable as a teacher only early morn i ng hours on May J 7, 21 and teaching contract as a permanent as long as she agreed not to fi ght for 23. teacher. ,. t he students' First Amendment rights, In ret urn. Nelson dismissed her law­ Most of Ihe testimony against Nel­ Nelson's attorney said. "One would suit. son , the Star reported , came from pr in ­ think that this would have created a The dispute began in late fall of 1978 cipal Laws. He charged t hat Nelson ex­ rather unlenable posi tion for the [see SPLCReporl, vol. II, no. 2] when ercised poor control over her classes, school board under MI. Healthy. " Adams argued. In Mt. Healthy School District v. Doy/e. the Supreme Court said a teacher cannot be fired solely for The settlement, signed June 25, provides the first exercising First Amendment rights. respite in a highly publicized, nine-month·long battle One day after the board 's vote against tenure, between 200 and 250 between Nelson and the school board. Yorktown High School students left school and staged a demonst rat ion at the superintendent's office. All were given one-day suspen sions . Yorktown principal James Laws ob­ fa iled 10 meet yearbook deadlines. and Socn after, opinion columns and let­ jected to the Broadcaster's pu blicat i on lacked "responsible leadership" when t ers to t he editor in local newspapers of anonymous letters to the editor that she allowed the Broadcaster to pr i nl began 10 cri t icize the school board's criticized the school 's administration. " negative articles." hand ling of the case. Laws also criticized the "over ly "I don 't (hink she should have exer­ Negotiations during the month of negative" tone of the paper. and di­ cised more control. juS1 more direc­ June between Nelson and the board rected Nelson "to develop a more posi­ tion." Laws reportedly said. "There's eventually resolved the conflict out of tive approach by the st udents . " At this no question in my m i nd that there is a court. Nelson agreed (0 settle after the poi nt , Nelson said, Laws first dis­ valid basis for dismissal." board guaranteed the free press ri ght s cussed the possibility that he m ight re­ Nelson , represe nted by an attor ney, of the Broadcaster. fuse to recommend tenure fo r her. tried to establish that some of Laws' Principal Laws, contacted in July, Six months later-on April 20, critici sms-part icularly those regard­ said he is no longer concerned about 1979- the principal did exact ly that , ing her handling of students-were negativism and does not anticipate fur­ advising t he school board not to renew based on misrepresented fact s . and t her problems with Nelson or the Nelson's contract. In the interim, two maintained that the "negativism ,. o f Broadcaster. Nelson \/. Laws. •

--::--:::-::-----_.. _ ------18 SPLC Repo rt Fall 1979 · Advisers

VIRGINIA Bill Cogbill is very much I he easy­ was "coerced " i nt o q u itt i ng volun­ going type. So when the editors of larily. Although Principal Brewer Ihe Brookville (Virginia) High said Cogbill "relates to I he SI udents Sex School Beeline asked him to pose as well as any teacher we've e,:,er had fo r a ph olograph in only his gym here" and superintendent Oates shorls, the newly relurned football gave the coach a "very favorable" . coach agreed And w hen Ihey then rating, Oates told Cogbi l l he Symbol asked him 10 recl ine on a sofa and "wasn't sure" whaf he could do for hold a foot ball like a rig lea f, he him when his cont ract came up for agreed 10 Ihat too. review. The 27-year-old fo rmer college Then Oates asked Cogbill, "Have Sacked gridiron star was onl y trying to help you h thoug t of resigning? " . the Bee/il/e, he says. That he d id "Iha d never conSidered it," says Cheesecake The sl udent paper sold out its Se P­ Cogbill, "but was coerced when he t em ber 1978 issue in record lime­ suggested t hat I resign for 'personal /- .!". la rgel y because of its Playgirl-style reasons' ra ther than risk li ring- for Shot Draws - . center fo ld [See SPLC Report, Vol. the sake of get t ing another job." Mixed Reviews II, No . II Donald Cable. director of sch ool But if the photo was popular with personnel. denied thaI the semi­ , o r the s tudent s il caused an upr a nude phol ograph has an ylhi ng to do among their parents. They objected wi th Cogbill's departlJre from the to both the picture-billed under a school system . Cogbill, who sub­ headline announcing I he ret urn of milled his resignation June 13, dis­ " "the sex symbol -and t he copy agrees . : that accompanied it "Mr. Cogbill, "I lhink the cen terfold had an aw­ we're glad you're back-the gi rl � es­ ful lot 10 do wit h it," says I he for­ pecially! ,. mer teacher and coach. Bul Cogbill Joining Ihe chorus of objeClions isn'l going 10 li ghl aboul it . Some was school superi n lendent Arnold at hletes' parents told Cogbill, Oa tes Jr., who sa id the display was "We're go nna ra ise some hell," and "in very poor laste" and wrote a lel ­ ot hers suggest ed he sue. Cogbill ler 10 principal Paul Brewer slat ing wasn'l having any of it. thaI the photo wo uld nOI "con tri­ "I'd ra t her work with someone bute to t he i ntellect ual growt h " of than fo r someone, " says Cogbil l. "I . Brook vi l le st udenls guess I'm too naive. If they were Now Cogbil l is ou t of a job. The able 10 st ack the odds against me suddenly controversial football I his lime, t hey' II do it again in coach was nOI fired , he says, but court." •

---- ._._...... _---_ ._...... - .- ._--- Fall 1979 SPLC Report 19 .�' Advisers

KANSAS low such instructions were "abridge­ ments of her rights. the journalism st u­ dents' rights. and the righ ts of all read­ 'Insubordinate' Teacher ers of said publciat ion as guaranteed by the Fi rst and Fourteenth Amend­ menlS ... Hangs on to Job Kober had retained her journalism With a minimum of fanfare and a lisl of guidelines for her to fo llow for teaching post and advisership through­ maximum of caution, the Board of Ed­ the censorship of fu lUre Times stories. out the litigation . which ended with the ucation of Uni fied School District 234 The guidelines asked : April 5 settlement . in Fore Scot! . Kansas. signed a pact of 1 . Is the article "in good taste"? Two of the agreemenl's first five truce on April 5 wit h high school Eng­ 2. Is the anicle " positive"? provisions deal specifically with the lish and journalism teacher Lily Kober. 3. Does the article cont ain any "scath­ manner in which the settlement should Announced quietly and without any ing superlatives"? be announced to t he public and the com me", , the agreement ends a IWO­ The next two evaluat ions focused on press. To any inquiring party, the set­ year-old federal lawsuit in which Kober subsequent issues of the pa pe r, but tlement mandates, a copy of the agree­ charged t he school board with ce nsor­ "no one ever visited my (journalism] ment "shall be fu rnished without fur­ ing her high school's Tiger Times and ther comment ." removing her as journalism teacher Moreover: "No party ...shal l en­ and Tiger Times adviser when she re­ gage in press con ferences , publicity an­ fused to do so . nouncements, or ot her act ions de­ According 10 the April set tlement. signed Of likely to renew conI roversy Kober promised to dismiss her lawsuil, over the past disputes of the parties; and the board promised to continue and no parcy shall make any claim that employing Kober as a journalism­ it or he or she was vicLOrious or pre­ English teacher "as if the above litiga­ vailed over any other parry in the .. tion had not occu rred ." The board above·litigation . also promised to remove the poor eval­ Despite the generalized language, it uation from Kober's personnel file. seems clear thaI the warning was tar­ Kober's problems began in Novem­ geted at Lily Kober, who the board ber, 1976, when t he newspaper ran an feared would take the opportll nity to editorial critical of the school lunch blast school officials. But was the program . (Among other things . the stu­ board protesting too much? "It is the dents criticized the cafeteria's "soggy specific belief and understanding of all tacos . ") Principal Bill Weatherbie, parties," says the agreement "that re­ whose wife is one of (he coo ks, ordered solution of their disputes was, in fact, Kober to submit all copy for fu t ure is­ derived from an honest understanding sues of the Times to him for review be­ after cordial and detailed discussions .. fore publicat ion. In December. when Weatherbie was In addition, the set tlement lists sev­ attending a conference, Kober sub­ eral areas of "common agreement" mitted the Ti mes copy to Superin­ over issues involving t he newspaper tendent Dr. R. E. Hicks, who removed and journalism class: a fe ature about the different types and "Neither the board nor Kober desi rc purposes of editorials. Th is piece deale to 'censor' or 'suppress' appropriate in part with the "soggy tacos" editor­ expression in the journalism class." MARY DRISCOl L ial. The December 21 issue of the "The parties recognize that journal­ Times was published with a blank classes," says Kober, " they just looked ism students must be allowed expres­ space where the article would have ap­ at t he issues . .. sion, within legal and educat ional peared. but with no mention of censor­ On March IS, 1977, Kober received st andards, in order to promote a sound ship. a let ter saying that she had been re­ journalism program." After publicat ion, Kober was noti­ hired . Later in the day, however, she "The parties recognize that it is not fied that she would be receiving three learned she had been reassigned to proper for the board or administrators evaluations. in case she might be re­ teach English only and would no to 'censor' the inclusion of articles cri­ moved. Union rules require these eval­ longer be the Times adviser. tical but properly and accurately pre­ uat ions before t he removal of a ten­ After a hearing before the school sented with objective development. ured teacher. board proved fruitle�s, Kober filed suit Neit her is it proper for the journalism According to Kober. the first evalua­ on July I, 1977 in federal court againSI leacher to allow shallow. poorly pre­ tion was concerned with the December the school dist rict and seven members pared, inaccurate. unlawful. or poor 21 issue of the newspaper. It charged of the school board . qualilY articles to appear." that she was "insubordinate and could The suit charged that their instruc­ Kober and the board also pledged to not go along with group decisions." tions fo r cen�orship of the school pa­ "communicate in good fa ith" about The evaluation let ter also contained a per and he removal for fa ilure to fo l- fu ture problems with the newspaper. •

------_.... _-----_.. _. __ ... ..- .. _ .. - .._--- -=-::----::--::---::---,------_. . 20 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Battle Strategies for Adviser Survival by J. William Downs Honor Society, budget cuts, censorship, why teachers quil , and Ihe grading sySIem . Perhaps I'm nol the right person lell anyone how to 10 Increasing pressure and threals from the adminisl ra­ play Ihe new game of Educational Catch 22. You expect tion bring bitter responses in print by the edito rs. The ad­ to hear from winners how they played the game and won. viser, Ihe whipping boy, takes the editors to his punish­ played the game and Slill, sometimes not 1 1051 . it's menl sessions to see firsthand Ihe nature of the relation­ whelher you win or lose, as Ihe saying goes, but how you ship- To clarify the situation , the adviser creates a com­ play Ihe game. mittee composed of parents, journalists. a lawyer, and (he pri ncipal and students draw up guidelines. The You know the game. U's probably played in your own 10 school. The school establishment tells the publications guidelines allow the students to co ntinue publishing Iheir adviser, "Break the law or we'll fire you !" They say, arl icles . "Your job is censor Ihe students' writings. You don'l 10 In Ihe midst of the struggle, a number of journalism have to be clever about il . If you want save face, go sludents Ihrealen to wa lk out to eSIablish their rights of 10 ahead . it in a way so that no one will know you are Do free speech , bul the editors and adviser sland with Ihe doing il, not even the studenls. Jusl make sure the Slu­ principal by the fronl door to IUrn back the walkoUl . At dents don 't publish anything we don't like or Ihal makes commencement, one of the school 's most po pular teach­ us look bad ." ers speaks of Ihe vitality of Ihe student newspaper. The Sometimes in Ihe game the message comes as straight graduating class claps and cheers . as that. Very often it comes in the fo rm of sugared ad­ One day later Ihe adviser is fired and relieved of his minislrative doubletalk . Slill, the message always gets duties as journalism teacher. The su pe rintendent ap­ through . But every adviser worlh his salt knows that the points an editor of his own the siaff. local press 10 The law clearly defines advisers' controls over sr udent publi­ prints anot her slory on the issue, reporling Ihal the ad­ cal ions, and the definilions specifically rule out Ihe sorl viser is Ihe first eX lracurricu lar acl ivily sponsor ever to be of censorship school adminislral ions usually prescribe. fired in Ihe school's history. know all about the game. I played il last year. The [n the fall of the following year , the paper fa ils to come I day after school ended, was fired as Ihe adviser of the out. Journalism class enrollment falls from 45 to 6 stu­ I school newspaper, Th e Smoke Signal-a name of unex­ denls. The adviser files a grievance over his dismissal. but pected signi ficance in a number of ways. the superintendent decides he hasn't got a case. Sl udenis not going to go inlo great detail aboul what hap­ conlinue to write IeUers to the local newspapers, but I'm pened to me in my losing fjght to sustain a free press al gradually they diminish until, eventually. the bailie is over . the spring, (he fo rmer adviser is to ld his co nt rac( my high schoo l. Read Captive Voices [New York , In Schocken Books, 1974]. You will find many st ories like will not be renewed because of falling enrollment and his mine in there. A sl ude", newspaper steadily improving lack of seniority. over several years suddenly becomes something everyone You 've read the same story or variations of il before. · wants read . Letters in response to the paper po ur in. There's more to it than that, but essemially the plOI is the 10 Em olions run high. Controversy flourishes. Articles same in Hillsdale or Tenaflyor Englewood or Deer Lake begin appearing on leen age pregnancy, marij uana smok­ or Miami. I'll spare you the gory details of story, but my ing in and out of school, the elilism of the National if you want to see a few of my scars, I'll show them to

---_._------_.-- .. --._ ...... _--- age them to select on a reasonable basis. The easiesl way Whipping Boy t o censor is to choose the editors yourself. No one knows it's happening. You choose an eager, college-bound , sen­ you when r talk about battle strategies in the fight to sitive sludent, but you may just be choosing a patsy. The create and main t ai n a free student press. same dull paper comes out every year . Nice young people Before r go any fu rther, however, one question must be earn themselves good recommendations to col lege . A answered . Has it been worth it? Would I do it again? In a sure indication of a censored paper is one that never pub­ word, yes. I have always wanted to be free. I know many lishes a controversial article, never causes a rumble in the of the young people in my classes are looking for free­ educational establishment . dom, the freedom to be themselves, to become whatever • I f your students want to publish something foolish , they might be, free to discover what that is. I've been lei Ihem . Protect your school from a lawsuit it would searching al l my life for that too. lose, of course, and your students. Don't allow them to Sometimes even now r feel the kind of depression they break the law , but be careful of imposing your standards. sense. It's the depression that comes from believing You are Ihere 10 advise, not dictate. there's no freedom in this world, the feeling we 're ail What bai l ie strategies can you use once freedom of slaves of the need to eac, sleep, clot he and ho use our­ speech comes under attack in your school? Long before­ selves. I learnep early, just as my students are learning , hand, you should expeci trouble. It can happen to yo u. II chat experiments often wind up hurting you. It 's depress­ willhappen to you. If you think your situation is special, ing. beware-you are particularly vulnerable. A right-t hink­ But I have found an escape from this slavery of life. I ing and courageous administ ration may protect your have found that my imagination can save me the pain of a school publication now , but administrations change. lo! of experiments in life. In reading and writing and Communities and t i mes change. The bel ler prepared you thinking, r find freed om and sa fety , and I feel sure I lead are , the better your chances of wilhstanding an attack a beller life because of the freedom I have to experimenc when il comes . in the world of the mind. • Know the laws of free expression and the relevant I've come to see t hai the only real freedom I will ever court decisions. Get the materials on Ihe law and guide­ fi nd is this freedom of imagination . In Ihis old humdrum lines from the Student Press Law Center. The Journalism world of a teacher , r still can find adventure . I can leap Education Association also supplies much useful mater­ off mountains, fall through space, die and live agai n, and ial. Does your state require guidelines? Circulate copies dream of terror and ecstasy . of Cap tive Voices in your school . If nOlhing else, being I bel ieve that we teachers should teach our students knowledgeable and up-to-dale about your rights and about both these two worlds-the physical, or w hat some those of your students gives administrators something to people call the real, and Ihe spi ri tual. We need to show think about when t hey feel pressed to censor student Ihe young people in our schools how and where to tie speech. down the tent ropes in the physical world. BUI we also • Use every bit or force you can muster to develop need to show them that in the spi rilual world Ihey can tie guidelines for your school's publications. If the ones you down the ropes anywhere an d anyhow Ihey choose . We have are unworkable, get rid of them . Man y stales now need to show them the relationship of these two worlds, require guideli nes. Often they define these guidelines in a that someh ow, they often richly complement one way that protec ts free speech . You r state may be one of another. these. To open up t hi s world of the imagination to young • Earn good evaluations for your pu blication from a people, I'll risk a lot. Thai means I'll put out a lo! fo r a reputable journalism association. I believe these associa­ free student press . St udent publication s are products of tions ought to give outstanding ratings to any student the free world of the spirit . They are places to explore and paper thai shows indication of free student involvement. experiment freely. Thei r free thought can stimulate more Good ratings can CUt down the mudslinging by admi nis­ free t houghts. Censoring them means closing off one pre­ trators and the forces o f censorship. cious element in the world of the mind . I remember very well once comi ng to work at my Is that wonh stopping, worth fighting against ?Oh, English department carrel and overhearing a conversa­ God, yes. Ie's only a question of the measure of contempt lion betwee n the principal and the assistant chairman, deserving any teacher u n willi ng to give somethi ng of him­ who had taken my job as newspaper adviser and journal­ self for t his precious dimension of human life. ism teacher. "After all," the principal was saying, with Now what about bailie stralegies in the fight to encour· what seemed to be a very defensive note in his voice , age free expression in our students' publications? After "whal does a first place in the Columbia Sc holastic Press the con fession of faith, what next? What are t he things Associalion contest mean anyway?" Our good ratings you can do to establish a free press in your school? obviously had made it difficult for him to use poor qual­ • Seek 10 make you r students responsible for what ilY as a justi fication for clamping down on t he paper . they prinl . Make il clear to them they must take the con­ • I n the same way, build up your own credi ts . Of sequences of their words. Two years ago a vice-principal course, education credits in writi ng and journalism help, complained to me because the editor of the paper called but I believe publications advisers should go beyond this. him Elwood in one edition, the name that the evidence I ha ve 25 years of experience in education. I have worked suggests is his real first name. I didn 't deal with the prob­ with ma ny kinds of school publications . r have published lem. I sent the ed itor who wrote the article in to t hresh the articles. r have also earned some awards and spoken at thing out. No one backed down on the question, but a! two recent CSP A conventions. These factors and degrees least r was out of the arena. from Harvard and New York University fended of( at­ • Work out a system where the students can choose tacks againsl me until the very end of my bailie. their own editors. Let the editors or staff do it. Encour- a If you can-and despite my attempts r was unsuc-

22 SPLC Report Fall 1979 cessful in this-get writlen evaluations of some SOrl on w ill produce studen ls' interested in a free, controversial your work as an adviser. Ask your princi pal, "Was my publication . The timing in my school was all wrong. The work on the paper sa lisfacl ry this year?" If he praises teachers and the board of ed ucation were involved in bit­ O you, ask him to put it on paper for your own records or ter contract negoli al ions , and the sc hool system was go­ to be enlered into your personnel file . ing th rough a demoralizing financial crunch . Some fel t Sl rive to get your teacher's association to protect our students needed firmer discipl ine The place was on • . you. Maybe you can get fair trealment for ex tracurricular edge wit h lens ion and choked with change. Still, when advisers written inlo your next contract . ncoura e your E g Cecelia Chang and Bi ll Stein set out to create their news­ associati on to adopt recommendations support ing free paper , r cou ldn ' t tell them to wait a year or two when the press rights. I find it very discou raging Ihat neither the cl imate might be beller. There was only one time for NEA nor the AFTh as made any such recommendation as them. rt had to happen then. yet. rf enough of their members exert pressure, these na­ Th is isn 't all you need to know aboul strategies for tional or anizat ions might be influenced. creating an maintaining a st Udent press your g d free in My local representative, unfortunately, was hardly re­ schoo l. Right no w, we're on new battlegrounds, fighting sponsi ve . When the superintenden t threatened to take ac­ battles in many ways unlike any others fo ughr in second­ lion againsl me, I went to my branch of the NEA. My re­ ary education . When the casualties are counl d and e presentalive began by asking me if I knew how much ot hers can report how they survived the fiercesl combal , trouble I was bringing into the contract negoliations as a maybew e ' ll have more re liable, good praclices. result o f t he s tories appearing in our school paper. I Of course, the courts cou ld resolve t he whole t hing . asked if he didn't think I shou ld obey the law. He said he They could ta ke action againsl people who exhort indi­ didn't think Ihe laws should apply sch ools . "We could viduals to break the law by th reatening their job securilY. 10 never run a school, " he said , " i f we fo llowed every law." If Ihe co url s did that , we might gel a liule more of Amer­ conclusio he advised me to "watch my ass." I to ld ica back from Kafka'sworld and Catch • rn n , 22. him r didn't get into teaching to do that.

Yo u mighl even want to sue . Right now I'm watch ­ • ing fo r the o utcome of the case i nvol vin the Ten afly g William Downs, a graduate of Harvard and New teachers [see SPLC Report, Vol . H, No. I]. Since il ap­ 1. I'm oul of a job I an ' t afford risking Yo rk Un iversity, writes and le ctures occasionally on the pears about 10 be , c the expense of a suit , but if the chances appear good student press. At Pascack Vatley High School in Hills­ as i ndicated by the Tenafly decision, r might risk so me of dale, New Jersey, where he teaches English and journal­ my daughler's college tuition on liligation. is m. Mr. Downs serves as adviser to The Smoke Signal. Finally, don'l expeci to be a ble pick the lime to do After preparing th is arlicle, Mr. Downs le arned of a Slale • 10 battle . Some generals may be lucky enough to do so, but la w providing educa tional seniority fo r military ser vice, you ' l l never know when t he ri h t co mbi nati on of fa tors and he has retained his job at Pascack. g c

z (.

--_._. _--_ .. _----_. Fall 1979 SPLC Report 23 Censorship

NEWJERSEY tOirty Words,' Clean Editor Filt hy or nol, George Carlin's that the ques tion of pu bl ication rests "seven diny words you can't say on with the editor, and [Spo/light ed ilor television" can now be published in Sarah Sternl has said that if it were up Cranford (New Jersey) High School 's to her she wouldn't run it." Sp o/light. But they probably won't be . Contacted at her home, Stern con­ Despite an out-of-court selliement firmed that she does not intend to ru n permitting a Sp otlight staffer to use the the piece .." wasn't planning on it. , "dirty words," the paper's new editor didn't like it ." The student editor said says she will not print them. The staf­ the outcome of the lawsu it does not ob­ fer, unsurprisingly, is none too lige her to print anyt hing she does not pleased. like. "The words are obscene, and , Matt Smith filed suit in March don 't think they 're at all necessary. " against the Cranford Board of Educa­ Smith said the words are i ncluded in tion because it had censored one of his his editorial "in the interest of com­ editorials on the ground of obscenity. plete and accurate reporting. " The editorial discussed the Supreme Court 's ruling on a widely publicized Allhough Smith is disappointed with radio broadcast of George Carlin's St ern's refusal to publish his editorial. "seven diTly words" and made specific ACLU attorney Richard Norris insists reference to t he controversial lang­ that his client's objectives have been uage. (See SPLC Report, Vol. II, No. met . "The prime issue," Norris said . 2.] "was to ha v e the prior restraint re­ The lawsuit did not , however, come moved. and we accomplished that ." to trial. In a June II agreemenl , the Principal Robert Seyfarth. for his school board said it "shall not in any part , was "totally opposed to the set­ way prohibit or prevent the publication tlement." Seyfarth said he is worried of such an ankle (the Carlin ed itorial] that "there seems to be no distinclion in t he school magazine known as t he between elementary and h i gh school Sp otlight." publications and college newspapers. I But that doesn't mean the ed itorial think that in h igh school we should be will be published. "The set t lement ," t ryi ng to teach people what journalist ic Smith ex plains , "makes it very clear good taste is." •

Reporter Mall Smith: Was his edilorial needlessly vulgar or "fu ll and complete rep orting "?

------","'- ._._----- 24 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Censorship

insubordinat.e conduct in light of prior [verbal] warnings; and the potential NEW YO Rk disruption of discipline proceeding from such insubord ination." Times Times' Attorney Emery said that analysis Hard for 'Hard "doesn 't seem to be very well rea­ soned. He bases it on the Tin ker Iv. A fed eral Judge in New York has the proposition they assert . It simply is Des Moines] standard of disruption , ruled that an underground magazine not so that public schools may curb then poi nls to only one fact that fu lfills printed by hIgh school students was not student expression solely because that that standard : the school board protected by the Fi rst Amendment, expression offe nds readers or lis­ president's complaint. But the Tinker even though it was distributed off teners .... case says just that sort of 'un­ school grounds, caused no disruption, "A pluralistic society," the altor­ differentiated fear' is not adeq uate. and was not obscene. neys co ntinued , "guarantees more "It's just outrageous, it 's as simple Calling the decision "outrageous, " freedom than suppression and punish­ as (hat . If you can censor that [maga­ the students' ACLU aU orney has fi led ment on the basis of taste. Schools zine), you can censor anything. an appeal with the U.S. Court of Ap­ have a well-established constitutional "It just shows he doesn 't understand peals for the Second Circuit . obligation to guarantee the survival of the case." "It is hard for my mind," wrote pluralism f thought and expression." 0 Arguments in the case will be heard U.S. District Court Judge James The NYCLU attorneys also noted T. by the Court of Appeals this fall . Foley, "to accept with equanimity the that the school officials relied heavily Th omas v. Board of Education. Gran ­ proposition that this high school ad­ on the assertion that Hard Ti mes was ville Ce ntral School Dis trict • venture . . rises to the stature of a . obscene, since they did not contend fed eral constitutional case .., . "(The magazine] is, at best, a cr ude attempt to create sensational high CALIFORNIA school news ...and, at worst ...pa- tently offe nsive and vulgar .... The Way It Was "To my mind, the conduct through­ Shelley Adams and JoOee Cipponen out was nothing more than an appro­ thought it was rather innocent, as ed i­ priate exercise of t he educational au­ torial copy goes: "Why, even Ihe thorities ' discretion to impose disci­ .�­ school superintendent denies the girls .-.. pline upon insubordinate students." basketball team a tournamen t of their

The magazine in question, Hard own. " Times, was wri tten by four students at The two Modesto, Calfiornia, ed· Granville (New York] Junior-Senior itors of Hughson Union High Sc hool's High School and sold outside a nearby �� Th e Way II Is were talking about male , - -- ...,, "" store. Using sexual spoofs as their prin­ , chauvinism, but soon they were faced ..,...- cipal theme, the students modeled ,...._- with a different problem. .' Hard Times loosely on Na tional Lam­ Learning that Th e Way It Is planned poon. to chastize him for sexist sports poli­ Other Granville students bought cies, school su perintendent Gary about 70 copies of the magazine be­ Brophy said he was "sick of yellow tween January 23 and 26. On January journalism " and ordered in writing 29, President Beverly Ta tko of the that the paper be brought to his office local board of education said Hard before distribution. Times was "the worst thing she had Apparen tly changing his mind, ever seen " and demanded a school in­ Proclaiming itself Brophy released the issue almost imme· vestigation of the magazine, "uncensored vu/gar - diately after receiving it. But adviser - That night, the board meted out immoral " Hard Times offe nded both Marjorie Brooks had oblained an at­ three-day suspensions to the four "key [he school board and the judge torney, and told Ihe school board she actors" in Hard Times ' publicat ion. wo uld not distribule the issue without The board founded its disciplinary de­ thai it disrupted school fu nctions. And written' perm ission because the confis­ cision on a Granville policy that says: Emery and Wolf said Hard Times did cation order had been in writing'. (AJ st udent may be suspended tem­ not even approach constitutional stan­ She received it. and the May I issue " J porarily who is 'insubordinate or disor­ dards of obscenity. of Th e Way It Is was distributed three derly, or whose conduct otherwise . . . Judge Foley disagreed that obscenity days late. California Teachers Associa­ ' endangers the safety, morals, health or was the issue. "[Tl his court does not tion attorney Cornelius Sullivan said wel fare of others.' " deem it necessary to become entangled that since the paper was eventually dis­ New York Civil Li berties Union at­ in t he elusive concept of obscenity." tributed , its confiscation would be "a torneys Richard Emery and Richard In his 19-page opinion, released May dead issue in t he California courts ." Wolf, representing the plaintiff stu­ 2, Foley wrote thai the sc hool board's The May 28 and June g issues of The dents. asserted that sc hool officials had Way were distributed without inci­ actions "were reasonable res traints !I Is cited "not one shred of authority for upon ex pression which proceeded from dent. •

Fal1 1979 SPLC Report 25 Un iversity of Southern CaliforniaDaily Tr ojan political cartoonist and SPL C Reportst aff member Bob Staake has been less than pleased with this year 's series of Supreme Court decisions affe cting the press. He offe rs some of his comments ...

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'' 1IIe�� I'II0r"(0) flit � 1"0 1(f;Ct,�e IIoIR::::IiIMfCN �p IDeAS. fWS ... �'i!Dl.ES5 C£ "floI",!:l SoCIAl-\I..IOR. fH}IS f� 1'"0 D:.IP- Fa:.!Sc:ZItrY, II -0utTlCt- ��!.L,I9'J9 Censorship

PENNSYLVANIA Smiles or Tears for 'Town Crier'? After 20 months of legal the school newspaper," says Snyder. responded by fi ling suil in November "'n that sense it was t tal victory. to maneuvering, an exhaustive four-day a o in federal co urt, charging the school lrial Ihat produced more than 800 Other parts of the April settlement with violation of their First Amend­ pages of lestimony and scores of provide that the To wn Crier will re­ ment rights. They also called a press newspaper and broadcaSI accounts of sume publication with financial sup­ con fe rence at a local Hilton hotel. de­ the controversy, the case of Gellman port comparable to that of previous nouncing the seizure as "silly" and "a v. Wacker-students versus the Philadel­ years, that the school board will pay waste of time" amidst tl]e larger finan- phia educat ional establishment-has been settied .

Who won , however, is not exactly clear. The censorship case-which gener­ ated national attention, including stories on ABC News and in The Ne w Yo rk and other major dailies­ Times '- began on October 21 , 1977 when m <:) George Washington High School Prin­ � cipal Carol Wacker seized 5,000 copies '-<:) of the Crier and suspended the To wn student newspaper's operations. has H not published since. An ar ticle on birt h control, one of three related stories discussing teenage pregnancy, provoked the confiscation. . ., \ "Couched in rat her clinical language" "(I-r) Eleanor Pel/ta, Craig Snyder. Robert Gordon , Bart Gellman" according to one editor, the article de­ scribed several methods of contracep­ the editors $SOO of their legal costs of cial problems plaguing the schOOl dis­ nearly $IC)OO , and Ihat the T n Crier trict . tion and mentioned abort ion . The o w related stories discussed the national will be subject to a new set of publica­ Quick to enter the fray, the Philadel­ problem of teen age pregnancy and tion guidelines. phia press provided eX lensive coverage gave an anonymous account of one According to the guidelines, the of the developing controversy. Th e pregnant teen 's traumatic experience. newspaper adviser will inspect all copy Ph i/adelphia Inquirer and Th e Evening and channel he Under the recently announced settle­ articles believes Bulletin both ran editorials su pporting "(inJappropriate ...for ...publi ca­ the students, the latter comparing the ment, future editors of the Crier To wn based upon the Canons of will resume publication with the "unre­ tion, Jour­ school districl 's behavior to that of na­ nalism and ... the co nstitution" to the stricted right" to publish the first two tions in the Communist bloc. principal, who may choose to pass it on censored st ories. But due to doubts After the initial publicity su bsided to the superintendent of schools. and the four-day trial came an eod , that the pregnant teen in the third story 10 The superintendent will have Ihe ever gave her co nsent for pu blication, nine long months passed before U.S. ultimate authority censor a story, the third story will not be printed. And 10 Dis trict Court Judge John B. Hannum based on the recom mendations of the the Philadelphia school system will be called together the attorneys to tell school legal counsel and Ihe able to review fu ture articles under a district's them thaI school officials had com­ president of Ihe Philadelphia News­ new set of procedural guidelines. mitted a "technical constilutional vio­ paper Guild . The entire review process As might be expected, both sides lation ." He did not hand down a for­ must take place within 72 hours . claim victory. mal decision, however, and instead or­ It is a somewhat ambiguous ending dered the school to negotiate. "We're extremely pleased ," says to a long and acrimonious battle . To wn Crier ed itor Gellman, in a col­ Principal Wacker. "We won more pre­ At the time of the seizure in 1977. a umn appearing in Ihis issue of SPLC rogatives than we'd been previously school district spokesman asserted the Heport (see page 50), criticizes Judge allowed. There was no prior review of birth control article was censored be­ Hannum's failure issue a fo rmal the student newspaper before-no 10 cause "there are other options, like ab­ opinion Ihat would have ended the al­ means of censorship. Now we do." stinence, for instance ." Principal ready prolonged court battle. Bul Craig Snyder, one of the sludenl Wacker also claimed aUlhority for the "We didn 't want to negotiate a com­ plainti ffs, says school's agreemenl the seizure on the basis of a 1939 Pennsyl­ promise," Gellman writes . "We didn't to reprint the censored articles is an ad ­ vania statute prohibiting the leaching fee l we should have to compromise our mission that it acted illegally. of birth control. First Amendment righ ts. We lold Ihe "The fundamental goal of the law­ The three editors-Barton Gellman, judge Ihal. No h ing happened ." Gell­ t suit was to have the articles printed in Robert Gordon, and Craig Snyder- man said he and his co-editors decided

28 SPLC Report Fa ll 1979 Censorship

to seUle the case ten months laler, Wacker, who maintains she origin­ NEBRASKA when Hannum threatened to declare ally confiscated the paper under orders the issue moot and dismiss t he case . from superintendent Michael Marcase. Now, despite the legal settlement, doesn't believe she violated t he consti­ Playing principal Wacker suggests the To wn lution. "I don't think the To wn Crier Crier might not resume publication. �omplies with the definition of a real "We attempted to do that last June," newspaper," says Wacker. "II was says Wacker . "I appointed two editors never decided Ihat the paper was not a Off Key but there wasn 't enought time to get house organ or that I was not the pu b­ , "He who pays the fiddler clJlls the the edi tion oul. lisher .' tune. When students pay the bills. th�y "The paper must have a faculty The principal also asserts that the can de termine what goes in the newsp a­ sponsor and so far I'm havi ng trouble anonymous account of a Washington pers" -a Nebraska high school prin­ 1 cipal. A masters degree candidate at the The principal says she will consider University of Nebraska says this state­ I charging the students with suing her ment is typical of the attitudes of most ! principals and newspaper advisers in merely to harass, with no her home state. reasonable expectation of winning. Robin Hadfield , who wrote a thesis "I don't know what they gained in the suit:' entitled "The Status of Student Press Freedom in Nebraska's High she says, "other than notoriety." Schools." found a disturbing gap be­ tween Ihe state of student press law in the opinion of these teachers and ad· fi nding someone wh o wants the job. High School girl's pregnancy might ministrators on Ihe one hand and the You can ' t have a paper without an ad­ have been an invasion of the girl's pri ­ nation 's COUflS on the other . viser and the teachers' union rules pro­ vacy. Some hearsay evidence was pre­ "All hough it appears t hat courts hibit appointing an administrator as a sented at the To wn Crier trial that the across t he country are expanding the paid extracurricular sponsor. " girl had not consented to the interview press rights of high school students ," School district General Counsel Eu­ and could be identified by the facts Had field wrote, "those students are gene Brazil, part of whose job is to in­ presented in t he story. still exercising only a limited amount of terpret the union contract, rej ects Th e Philadelphia Inquirer published jou rnalist ic freedom." Wacker's contention that appointment the account in its entirety, without inci­ The graduate student based her con­ of an administrator to the newspaper dent . clusion on a December 1978 poll she sponsorship would violate union rules. While the case was still pending, the administered to high school pri ncipals "If no faculty adviser will take the editors filed several grievances with and newspaper advisers. The poll job and [an administrator) is willing to school district authorities. chargi ng asked questions on censorship, prior do it, I see not hing illegal about it," he that Wacker was "harassing" them by review , and the First Amendment says. revoking school privilege� . Gellman rights o f st udent jou rnalists . Wacker says she's considering creat­ says the principal deliberately kept him Ninety-six percent of Hadfield's re­ ing an "in-house" radio station at the from seeing an unsolicited recommen­ spondents believed a newspaper advis­ school as a possible replacement for dation she wrote to colleges to which er has the aut horit y to censor student the To wn Crier. he applied. Wacker calls the c harge copy, and every respondenl save one Attorney Joseph Harbaugh, who re­ "absolutely false," maintaining she said his school's adviser inspects all presented the student editors, says if sent away the original and did not keep copy before pu blicatit1n. t he paper does not resume publicat ion a copy. Of the advisers. 29 percent agreed he will fi le suit in state court, charging The recommendat ion Wacker sub­ strongly and 39 percent agreed some­ the s�hool system with breach of con­ mitted to Princeton University, where what that censorship is necessary . tract. Gellman now at t ends school, reads: "I Among the princi pals , 42 percent "The agreement makes it clear that do not feel as though I could give a re­ agreed strongly and 33 percent agreed [Wacker] doesn't have the righ t to commendation that would be helpful somewhat . Fourteen percent of the ad­ avoid publish ing the paper. The agree­ toward Barton's acceptance by your in­ visers and 12 percent o f the administra­ ment is legally binding, " says Har­ stit u tion ." Gellman grad uat ed seventh tors were uncertain. baugh. in a class of 1,000. The poll, conducted by mail, re­ General Counsel Brazil says he ex­ The principal says she will consider quested responses from every principal pects the To wn Crier to start publish­ filing a " mal icious process" suit-a and newspaper adviser in the state. The ing again in the fall: "If the agreement legal action charging that the plaintiff response rate was 4Q percent. says it will be published , it will be pub­ sued merely to harrass, and wi th no ex­ Dr. John Ba yley. professor of poli­ lished . Everyone in the school system pect ation of winning. tical science at Georgetown University will abide by the settlement. We 're cer­ "I still don't know what they gained and an expert on polling, said t he poll tai nly not going to violate an agree­ in the suit, other than notoriety," she is probably accurate to within plus or ment that's a matter of court record." 5a% . • m inus 15 percent . •

---_...... -. _-_._ ...... Fall 1979 SPLC Report 29 Censorship

NEW YORK 'CI�lieftain' Buries the Ax-Reluctantly Representatives of the national of­ rice of the American Civil Liberties Union have decided not to appeal an unfavorable ruling on the seizure of "Second circuit law is Sewanhaka High School's Chieftain in hanging in the balance. Floral Park, New York. I think we're better off But Alan Azzara , the local ACLU with the bad case in allorney who represented two Sewan­ haka students in the case, said he was the district." opposed to allowing t he U. S. Dist rict Court 's ruling to stand unchallenged . "I was not in favor of that decision. It was taken out of my hands by the na­ t ional office," Azzara said. Attorney Richard Emery of the ACLU's nat ional office in New York City-a parlicipant in the decision not to appeal-said the case was too risky to bring to the circuit court . Two editors of the Chieftai" had chal lenged Principal Robert Andrews' NYCL U'sRichard Em ery dest ruction of the paper' s last issue of the 1978 school year (see SPlC Reporl, Vol. JJ, No. 1). Second Circuit," the attorney said, purely the result of the fear of political Andrews had confiscated and dis­ "that is much, much stronger on the consequences. posed of the issue because it contained facts. There was no forecast of disrup­ "We thought we ought to bring the twO object ionable lellers. One, from tion and no disruption. What the strongest case up." Frasco v . ..111- the lacrosse team, threatened the school did there [see story page 25) was dre ws. • Chieftain 's sports editor. and the ot her leveled accusat ions against a student government officer. NEW YORk Judge George C. Pratt ruled in De­ cember of 1978 that the principal's ac­ tions were justified because the fi rs t Under the Influence leller could have caused a substantial Drug problem? What drug problem? resort . I hope that the public will now disruption of school and the second Ni nth grade reporter Joel Berg of the be informed of the rea/ trulh." might wrongly have damaged the stu­ Kakiat Junior High School in Spring School officials told The Journa/ dent government officer's reputation. Valley, New York says that 's the atti­ News that they had re fused to run the ACLU's Emery said he feared the tude of his school administrators. story because it was inaccurate and students might lose if they appealed. Berg, who is sports editor of gave a bad i mp ression of the school. "The principal forecast disruption," Kakiat's SII/oke Signal, cou ldn' t get an "1 don't feel it's a censorship situa­ Emery said, "and was not co ntradicted arlicle on drug abuse published in the tion." the faculty adviser told t he in any way. There was no fact u al con­ school paper, so he sen t copies to The News. "There are concerns about test. Rockland ReIJiew and Th e Journal questionable judgment and fact­ "But the overall reason, and it was a Ne ws - wil h a combined readership of gathering ability. It smacks a little sen­ group decision, was a general feeling over 160,000. sat ionalistic.» that Second Circuit law is hanging in the balance. [ think we're bet ter off The two local papers devoted consi­ The director of secondary education wilh the bad case in the dist rict (than if derable space 10 Berg's problem, and in t he East Ram apo School Dist rict, it were in the circu it] ." printed excerpts from the drug abuse however, told the News his main objec­ Also influential in the ACLU deci­ piece as well. tion was that Be rg's article singled out sion not to appeal, Emery explained , ..Af ter talking to school officials, I Kakiat Jun ior High School. was a previous commitment to appeal realized my a rti cle would never be "Possibly it's close to the truth," the another student press case in New printed in a sc hool paper." Berg told director commented , "but 1 don't York. SPLC Report . "1 saw se nding the ar­ think it's different at Kakiat than a n y

"We have another case going to the ticle to the local papers as my last ot her sc hool. ' ,

--_...... _ ...... _...... ---- 30 SPLC Report Fa ll 1979 · Censorship

Berg's cont roversial slory, "Mari­ HAWAII juana Use Climbs But Hard Drug Abuse Remains Low. " said that "marijuana is t he preferred drug over Belated Spring cocaine. P.c.P .. 'hard drugs,' and al­ cohol" at Kakiat . It took a year and two days, but mering the settlement into contract Berg based his conclusions on a sur­ fu nding has finally been restored to the form. it was nine long months before vey taken of "more than 100 students beleaguered Impulse magazine of the the next issue of Impulse fi nally hit the grades seventh through ninth." His University of Hawaii . streets. ri ndings agreed in substance with a As part of an agreement with the The inilial brouhaha stemmed from study laken by the New York State Di­ universilY's East-West Center, Im ­ the pu blicalion in the winter 1978 Im­ vision of Substance Abuse Services. pulse distributed its long-delayed pulse of a controversial poster-en­ liased on his sampling of Ihe spring 1978 issue on April 27 , 1979. titled "Spies on Campus"-alleging school's 1.100 students, Berg estimated Distribution followed months of the existence of an elaborate syslem of that some 15 to 30 frequently use hard prot racted negot iat ions a fter an campus informers fo r the Taiwanese drugs such as methadone, angel dust , eleventh-hour inlerim agreement government. cocaine and speed. averted a U.S. District Court hearing On April 25, 1978, after an outcry "Even Ihough significant penalties by just one day. against the magazine by Chinese stu­ are en forced for the use and sale of In June 1978 an American Civil U­ dents, a university administrator an­ these drugs, most of them can be pur­ berties Union attorney had sought an nounced that Impulse 's fu nding would chased at Kakiat without much injunction on behalf of the Impulse be "terminated for the good of the trouble," Berg wrote. editorial board to release magazine [East-West) Center." In defense of his story's accuracy, fu nding. [See SPLC Report 8). The The administrator claimed that the Berg said that "the nat ure of the article board accepted a settlement offer from magazine had been "journalistically made it obviously impossible to quote the East-West Center on August 17, irresponsible" inprinting the poster people [by name)" but that everything one day before the issue was scheduled and the translation. The Impulse staff he wrote was "bac ked up by hard to be tried. had spent three weeks prior to facts." - But because of the difficulty of ham- publication researchi ng t he events surrounding the protests contained in FLORIDA the poster. Before filing suit the staff attempted to negot iate with the school adminis­ Offenders Anonymous tration. The editors agreed to print a disclai mer in the next issue stating that The principal and newspaper adviser the Center had nothing to do with the at Coral Springs High Sc hool have ap­ posters and to delete a line in the mast­ parently decided to protect the parents head that said (he Impulse was an "of­ of juvenile criminals at the expense of ficialEast-West Center activity." the student-edited Pony Express . And The staff even agreed to allow all fu ­ at least one of the paper's staffers is ture stories printed in the magazine to not pleased with the decision. be subject to "libel review" by a mu­ Despite a police policy in this Florida tually acceptable attorney. town of releasing the names of parents However, when the school an­ whose children are charged with fel­ nounced that the reviewer would be the onies, the high school administrators law fi rm for the East-West Center, the refused to allow st udent reporter Frank Beauchamp to print them. staff balked and fi led suil. Beauchamp wrote a story for the Under the terms of the fi nal agree­ 27, June Pony Express about two teen­ ment signed April Impulse is to be agers arrested for a string of five bur­ published by a new corporation that is glaries at a local shopping center. The independent of the university. "The student reporter correctly identi fled East-West Center wHl continue to fund their parents as Mr. and Mrs. Robert the magazine indirectly by purchasing Pearly and Mr. and Mrs. Brian Barr. copies fo r distribution to the Center Adviser Charlene Martin excised the community," according to an Impulse Reporler Frank Beauchamp names, requiring Beauchamp to make news release. only general reference to the "two sets uated, said he has decided against legal John Black. speaking for the Im­ of parents." The principal upheld action . pulse board, said he thinks the agree­ Martin's decision over the objections The principal and adviser did not re­ ment is excellent. "We consider the of reporter Beauchamp. spond to SPLC Report inquiries by contract a victory and a vindicat ion of Beauchamp, who has since grad- telephone and letter. _ our stand for freedom of speech." _

Fall 1979 SPLC Report 31 Censorship

KENTUCKV A Hollow Victory It came as little consolation to Tom satirical issue without being forced to Murray when a U.S. Distr ict Court apologize . judge told him his first Amendment The board of student communica­

rights had been violated . tions had asked Murray to publish "a Murray, editor of the University of prominently displayed apology." He Louisville student newspaper. was refused . When the board then failed to fi red fr om that position after he re­ muster the two-thirds vote necessary fused to apologize for publishing a for dismissal, Vice- President for Stu­ controversial April fools' edition. dent Affairs Ed Hammond personally Although Judge Thomas Ballantine fired the editor. ruled May 15 that the university acted Hammond based the firing on Mur­ illegally in removing Murray from the ray's "insubordination" and said he salaried post, he also held that the con­ violated the university's student jour­ troversy was moot because all sched­ nalism code of ethics. Judge Ballantine uled editions of last year's paper had commented at the hearing that the code been published. Murray had asked to could not undercut Murray's constitu­ be reinstated as editor for an extra tional freedoms. commencement edition of the news­ Both sides have fi led notices of ap­ paper. peal with the U.S. Court of Appeals Ballantine also refused to order that for the Sixth Circuil. University offi· the university give Murray back pay or cials disagree with Ballantine's holding that they infringed on Murray's First Amendment rights. Murray's aUorney, Daniel Taylor, argues that Murray, now a senior. has "I'm sick and tired of a legal right to publish one more edition of The Cardinal. Unable the sanctimonious to obtain a hearing before the hypocricy of final issue was published. Murray the federa l bench." wanted to print a special commence­ ment edition . Judge Ballantine ruled that the decision o f whet her 10 publish the special issue was the responsibility tired of the sanctimonious hypocrisy of of the school, not the editor. the fe deral bench," said Taylor . al torneys' fees, making Murray's vic­ "The thrust of Murray's argu­ Taylor will also seek attorneys' fees tory a hollow one at best. Winning ment," wrote the judge, "seems to be under the Civil Rights Act . He has do­ plaintiffs in civil rights actions usually thaI as editor it was his determination nated his services but says he's en­ recover attorneys' fees from the defen­ whether or not to publish a commence­ countered di fficuhies raising money dants. ment issue. This argument is without fo r the appeal . The Playboy Founda­ Clearly. Judge Ballantine did not merit since the decision to publish rests tion is thus far his only contributor, think much of The Cardinal's April with the publisher, in this case, the with a $350 grant to cover the cost of Fools' edition. He said it was "replete University. Once the University deter­ the transcri pt required for an appeal . with obscenity, libel and infantile, mines that it will publish an edition, Irreverent April Fools' editions are heavy-handed attempts at satire." the content of that edition becomes the so mething of a tradition at the Univer� Highlights of the joke issue included responsibility of the editor." sity of Louisville. Cardinal editors a report that the entire football team Attorney Taylor says that decision is caused a storm of controversy several had been arrested on charges ranging "dead wrong," but his criticism ex­ years ago by falsely reporting (hat uni­ from rape and sodom y to "associating tends beyond the judge's legal reason­ versity President James Miller had with subversive newspaper ed itors, If an ing. Taylor charges that Ballantine de­ died. advertisement for cocaine at "$1 9.95 a layed making a fo rmal decision until That edition sparked a budget­ gram " and a front-page photograph after commencement so he would not cutting threat by university officials, as displaying several h undred naked have to order Murray's reinstatement did the most recent satire. Now the uni­ backsides. The stories were also sea­ as editor. versity will reportedly study proposals soned with a liberal sprinkling of pro­ The attorney also believes the judge to make Th e Cardinal financially inde­ fanity. abused h is powers by re fusing to order pendent. The weekly receives about

However offe nded he was, Judge any sanctions against the university de­ hal f its $50,000 budget from the un i ­ Ballantine conceded the ousted editor spite fi nding the school had deprived versity. Murray v. Board of Trustees, had a conslitutional right to print the Murray of his rights. "I'm sick and University oj Louis ville . •

32 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Censorship

committee voted, 2-1, to uphold Hil­ TEXAS burn's censorship. With advice from the American Friend or Foe-or Both? Civil Liberties Union, editor Gary Fendler cited court cases-Popish v. For over half a century. t he Texas story and the unpublished column. Ac- Board oj Curalors and Cohen v. Cali­ Studenl Publications Board has made cording to the Daily Texan, two stu- lo rnia-that said profanity is not le­ long-term budgetary policy for the dents dressed as gorillas dropped a gaily obscene, and drafted an April 20 University of Texas at Austin'S Daily fa ke shrunken head-symbolic of editorial calling for the TSP 10 start Texan. and exercised prior reView and Malone-at Mitchum's feet . then re- paying "more then lip service to the censorship powers over Ihe st udent leased black baloons and walked away. phrase ' freedom of Ihe press.' " paper. Sometimes friendly. sometimes The "small spectacle" was intended to Fendler' s editorial joined the Th ree- strained, relations between the TSP represent the Texan's "repression of Mile-island cartoon on the cutting­ Board and the Daily Te xan often fluc� our free speech," Malone reportedly room noor. Hilburn had again exer- tuale, and remain something of a para­ said . cised his censorship prerogat ive. dox-even to those directly involved. Nearly a year later, last April 24 , the After several more days of squab- "It's confusing, " admitted Texan two law students filed a $100,000 dam- bling between the TSP Board and the 8-2 editor Beth Frerking. "Sometimes age suit against Malone. the TSP Texan, the board relenled-voting they're good and sometimes they're Board and the University z .-----:---=----...... <{ m� n",: r------, bad." Board of Regents. Samuel- � #jSfREr(�A . , Lately, they've been bOl h. son and Mitcham charge ; :;OIL CAtfff£,1NVF \. When two University of Texas law that t he Texan caused them � ItIU 1S t w·_ students decided to sue the Daily Texan "great anxiety and mental ;;; -'" .I'-- ��' ' � for libel, the TSP Board was "behind distress" by "holding them � us all the way," according 10 Frerking. up to public ridicule" in the <5 But when former Texan editor Gary news stories about the copy- 0 Fendler sought to publish a cartoon right violation and demon­ containing touchy language, he soon stration. They say the stor­ fou nd the TSP Board on the other side ies were libelous and "pub­ of the ring. lished with actual malice." The libel conflict began in April The lawsuit contends use 1978, when law students Eric Samuel­ of the Texan's material con­ son and David Mitcham printed a stituted non-profit "fair handbill conlaining copyrighted news use" and does not violate stories and a cartoon from the Daily any copyright law. A deci­ Texan. Complaining that Ihe Texan sion is pending. had provided inadequate coverage of "Anybody can sue any­ an upcoming referendum, Ihe Iwo st u­ body for anything, and this dents wanted to distribute the handbills is the perfect example of to the university community. that," said Jeff Case, then president to allow Fe ndler to print an editorial Dan Malone, then editor of the of the TS P Board. Editor Malone column on the question of profanity. Texan. told the law students thaI distri­ and TSP General Manager Loyd Ed­ The editor found that Hilburn had in bution would require written per­ monds would not comment , and the past years regulary replaced profanity mission from the paper, which he did plaintiff law students could not be with Jess offe nsive euphemisms. Fe nd­ not want to give. Malone said he reached. ler wrote that "substiluling 'cow ' refused permission to "prevent anyone If the TSP Board was helpful and pa llies' for 'bullshit-, was not only un­ from using something in the Texan to supportive during Ihe libel controver­ called for, but it also changed the in­ advance a political cause." sy, il pulled a Jeckyll-and-Hyde trans­ lended meaning of the senlence. Can Adding insult to injury, the Texan formation when the Daily Texan tried anyone's argument really be full of Ihen ran a story abou the alleged viola­ to print a cartoon conlaining pro­ cow patties?" tion of its copyright. The paper quoted fanilY· Bul Fendler denied Ihal the Texan Mitcham, a Ihird-year law sludenl , as The cartoon depicted engineers would "belabor the issue of censorship sayi ng "I just had complele ignorance searching through an instruction or fill this column wilh every expletive of the issue, " and "1 had no idea 1 was manual at Ihe Three Mile Island imaginable just because we are free to breaking the law," nuclear power plant, with the last do so . Thai was not whal we were try­ Charging Ihal the Texan article was panel captioned, "Look under F for i ng to achieve ... . " biased, Samuelson submitted an edi­ fuck-up, Zeke." What Ihe Texan has achieved , ac­ torial column 10 cell whal really hap­ Editorial Manager Robert Hilburn, cording to incoming editor Frerking, is pened. Editor Malone refused to print a fu ll-lime university employee charged a private agreement with censor Hil­ it. saying it was too long and contained by the TSP Board to review all Texan burn that he "will nOI stop anything fact ual errors. copy, removed the cartoon on the unless it's libelous." Mitcham and Samuelson then staged ground that it violated "good journal� "He gelS along with us just fine a demonSlralion 10 protest Ihe biased istic practices." The TSP's review sub- now," says Frerking. •

Fall 1979 SPLC Report 33 Censorship

MICHICAN since Kemp has long since trans­ t old him to revise the piece "so as ferred to a four-year college . not to make the president look But It Sure "( was less than satisfied,"Kemp bad," said. When Kemp refu�ed, he said he Beats Losing Nonet heless, Kemp's settlemenl was locked out of his office and dis­ seems likely 10 head off Cu rther con­ missed from his editorial position by Sometimes winning isn't every­ Door. troversy at the Open the Student Publications Board . thing. His lawsuit , filed in U . S . Districl i Allhough a former editor of the Court in June of 1977, alleged that Kemp said the board juslified h s Wayne County (Michiganl Commu­ he had been illegally ousted from his dismissal with " samet hing about nity College Open Door has won a position after pu bl ish i ng an editor­ academic deficiency," but t he for­ fa vorable settlement in his suit ial that criticized the administ ration. mer editor maintained that his aver­ against the college. he says t he vic­ The May editorial, censuring the age was well above the required 2.5, tory doesn 't help him much. college for reportedly paying and speculated that WCCC admin­ H. Samuel Kemp sett led in Feb­ $45 ,000 "under the table" to induce istrators had pressured the board ruary for $15 in court costs, a $6 a vice-president to resign, said the into its decision. compensation, and a court -en forced money was "excessive " and could An administrative spokesman agreement prohibiting administ ra­ have been used to fund scholar­ said she is "not au

TEXAS An $800,000 Question Mark

Members of the Pan American Uni· Because Sc hilling's ban was slill in versity Latin students' organization'say effect a month later, university admin­ Ihey expec t a hearing soon on a lawsuit "Schilling responded by istrators con fiscated J 50 copies of the they filed against the university and banning distribution of October 4 issue as wel l. Two weeks several administrators. The studenls later, attorney James Harrington of fi led suit in September 1977 , after ad­ the newspaper, and the Oficina Legal asked for and re­ ministrators con fiscated an issue of the ordered the ceived the court injunction against student newspaper, £1 Sol, which confiscation of the such interference. quoted an anonymous source as charg­ £1 Sol publication policy allows that ing that $800,000 was unaccounted fo r August issue." "the student newspaper should be free following a university audit . of ce nsorship and advance approval of Vincent Slein of the San Juan, copy." That policy was approved by Texas, Oficina Legal del Pueblo Unido the paper's publication and distribu­ Ihe Pan American University Publica­ says I hal because of changes in federal tion, It also seeks compensatory lions Commi llee and, according to £1 judges, " the courts have done nothing damages. Sol, en forced by Ihe administrat ion on the matter for more than a year," After the article appeared in Ihe since 1976. The suit charges that university Pre­ August 1977 issue, Sc hilling called ed­ But Schilling says that he only sident Ralph Schill i ng and other ad­ iLOr Raul Arredondo and £1 Sol faculty wa nted the students to name their minist ralors violated bot h the school 's adviser Juan Chavira into his office source or verify its informalion, He publication policy and the st udent 's and asked them to reveal the source of would nOl say that the allegat ions were First and Fo urteenth Amendment ,the slory. They refused, saying only untrue at the time of (heir publication, rights by banning on-campus distribu­ that their source was "highly reliable." although he says that Ihe audit is now tion of £1 Sol in September 1977 . Schilling responded by banning dis­ complete and that all funds are ac­ A Texas district court enjoined that tribu tion of the newspaper, and or­ counted for. ban a month later fo llowing the confis­ dered the confiscation of the August Harrington filed a motion for sum­ cation of a second issue. The paper has issue. More than 1,500 copies were mary j udgme n t last April 24 . The state published regularly since then. rounded up. attorney general's office filed a cross­ Now the Lal i n students' organiza­ The slUdents' organizat ion filed a mOlion June 8. lion asks thaI Ihe university be perma­ class action in Texas diSlrict court on Slein expects a hearing date to be set nently enjoined from interfering with September 30, ··sometime soon ." •

34 SPLC Report Fa ll 1979 Censorsh�p

CALIFORNIA Fallout at 'The aily Californian' The Justice Department is consider ­ ing criminal prosecution againsl the editors of the University of California As SPL C Report went to press, Justice Department attorneys obtained a tem­ at Berkeley Daily Californian for pub­ porary restraining order fr om fe deral lishing a letter by four nuclear scien­ judge Robert H. Schnacke on Sep tem­ tists that criticized the Department of ber 15 prohibiting The Daily Califor­ Energy's document classificalion pro­ nian fr om publishing a 17-page le ller cedures. DOE officials believe the let­ describing the hydrogen bomb written ter contains in formation useful 10 the Han­ construction of a hydrogen bom b , and by computer-programer Charles that ils publication was a violation of sen. The government alkged the letter the 1954 AlOmic Energy Act . re vealed "secret restricted data. " Violation of the Atomic Energy Act Details in the winter SPL C Report. carries a maximum IO-year jail sen­ tence and a fine of up 10 $10,000. r r The April 25 lette -w itten to Sen­ procedures, the scientists charged, alor John Glenn (D.-Ohio) by Theo­ "(AI disturbing aspect of the govern­ dore Postol, George Stanford, Gerald ment's handling of [classifiedl infor­ l Marsh and A exander DeVolp; of the mation pertains to the possi ble use of Argonne National Laboratory near classi fication and declassification for Chicago-charged I hat the Depart­ political purposes. The Government's ment of Energy may have classified in­ confirmation of the general accuracy for mation and documents for political of Ihe Morland article might be a con­ purposes . The scientists asked for a scious attempt to influence the out­ f l l-sc l congressional inquiry into th u a e e come of Ihe case by increasing the ap­ mai ler . parent sensitivity of Morland's infor­ The Senale Subcommittee on Energy mation in the hopes of establishing a and Nuclear Proli feral ion, which legal precedent for prior restraint .... Glenn chairs, already had begun hear­ "The power to selectively classi fy ings on the DOE's classi fication pro­ documents that contai n information cedures, shortly after Ihe Progressive that is, and should be, in the public do­ magazine attempted 10 publish an ar­ main, is an effective tool for influenc­ ticle enli£Ied "The H-Bomb Secret: ' ing policy discussion and ' public opin­ How We GOt H, Why We're Telling ion." It. " The c leng d That attempt was Ihwarted March 26 scientists also hal e Ihe government ' s argument in t he Progres­ when a U.S. District Court in Madi­ sive case-that the dissemination of in­ son, Wi sconsin , issued a preli m inary formation contained in the Morland injunction to prohibit lhe article's pub­ article could significantly hasten a lication . The court said that Ihe article country's nuclear development-by conlained previously unpublished tech­ nical informat ion and sketches show­ discussing the difficulty such a country im plementing reported ing the workings of a hydrogen bomb. would have in concep s. cited as an Attorneys for the Progressive mai n­ weapon-design t [t xample the concept diagramed tain, however. that all the facts in t he e in Ed­ article came either from public sources ward Teller's 1976 Encyclopedia rt cle [1976, Volume 14, p. or from information declassified by the A mericana a i 655]. That diagram, he scientists say, governmen t , and that therefore its t a e publication could not damage national is simil r to Ihe diagram th govern­ h s suppressed in the Morland ar­ security. ment a Howard Morland, author of the ar­ ticle. ticle, says he obt ained his in formation All four of the scientists filed affi­ from a wide variety of pub lic sources: davits on Morland's behalf in the Pro­ public li braries , university libraries , gre ssivec ase. unclassified government documents The scientists originally sent their and interviews, many of which the De­ letter to The Wash ing/on Post. Th e part ment of Energy a rranged for him. Ne w Yo rk Times, Senators Frank In urging Glenn to study the DOE's Church (D.-Idaho) and Birch Bayh

Fa ll 1979 SPLC Report 35 Censorship

(D.-Ind.) and Congressman Richard­ son Preyer (D .-N.C.). Glenn forwarded the letter to the MISSISSIPPI DOE, requesting that Classifications Chief Jack Gifford look into the scien­ After That tists' charges . Six weeks later, Gifford ordered their leiter classified "secret­ Demon Rum restricted" because it was, in his words, "found to contain Restricted A century-old specter has Data as defined by the Atomic Energy risen up to haunt the Univer­ Act of 1954. " He ordered all copies sity of Mississippi's Daily Mis­ rounded up "for safekeeping." sissippian, and the student In late May, scientist Hugh DeWitt editors there say they will try of the Livermore National Laboratory to kill it once and fo r all. in California sent copies of the leiter to Kathy Dunagin and Glen several Bay area newspapers, including Allison fi led suit in fed eral the Oakland Tr ibune, the San Jose court in an attempt to strike Mercury and the Daily Cal{(ornian . down a 19t h-century state stat· Joe La Grone, a DOE official in ute prohibiting liquor adver­ Oakland, warned the newspapers on tisements. The students June II that possession of the letter contend the Jaw is unconstitu­ was illegal. But Daily Californian tional. editor Tom Abate called the DOE's ac­ The suit was sparked when tions "an apparent misuse of power," the attorney for the local city and contacted Congressman Pete Mc­ of Oxford demanded that the Closkey (R.-Calif.) for adv ice. Daily Mississipp ian stop ac­ McCloskey, a member of the House cepting beer advertisements. Subcommittee on Government Infor­ The attorney threatened to mation and Individual Rights and a take legal action to enforce the longtime proponent of abolishing the statute's ban if the editors re­ DOE, told Californian editors that fused . "absolutely nothing in the letter is con­ Soon after the case came to fidential and there is no justifiable rea­ court, state Attorney General A. F. Sumner issued an opin­ son for classifying it. It He advised, "If entirety on June 13, alongside an edi­ I were you , I'd run in on the front torial charging that "the government ion stating that the stat ute page." wields the most powerful of political does not apply to beer ads. The Californian ran the letter in its weapons when it decides what can be Oxford then offered to drop discussed by the public." its objections. Leonard Weiss. staff director of But the editors "decided to Glenn's energy subcommittee, agrees challenge the validity of the that the DOE's classification of the let­ entire statute, " said Grady ter "exacerbates an already di fficult si­ Tollis. an attorney for the stu­ tuation. They have put themselves be­ dents. "We're challenging the hind the eight ball." But he said the law as a violation of the First Californian 's publication of a classi­ Amendment protection for fi ed document-whether classified commercial free speech ." rightly or wrongly-"has put them in The students seek an inj unc­ violation of the law, without a doubt ." tion against en forcement of Since June 13, at least three other the ban, a dec laration that the newspapers-the University of Illinois law is unconstitutional and at­ Daily JIIini, the Illinois State University torneys' fees. Videlte and the University of Wiscon­ State a Horney Hubbard

sin Daily Cardinal- have published the Saunders dec lined to discuss letter in its entirety. The Justice De­ the case in detail. but re­ partment has planned no legal action marked that (he ad ban has against those papers. "been on the books, in one According to a source in the Justice form or another, since the Department, the case reached the desk J 800s." He said the state will of Deputy Attorney General Benjamin argue t hat liquor advertise­ (Clockwise): Civiletti, the Civilelti just before his appointment as ments are not fully protected controversial iss ue, and rhe attorney generaL It is not known by the constitution. • composition room - whether Civiletti will continue to take a will Justice prosecute? personal role in the case. •

------.. _... _ .... ------_.. _ .. _------36 SPLC Repo rt Fall 1979 Government Action

The shooting suspect fleeing (a bove) and apprehended (b e/ow): Wa s The Daily Fo rty-Niner in terfering with justice or protecting its credibility ?

:t> Z Z CALIFORNIA ,., )<. z c o (/0 'I Destroyed Everything' m Z

"The rat ionale was simple: I would State Long Beach student, has been not let the Daily Forty-Niner become a charged with three felony counts; as­ conduit to the police, the prosecutor's sault with intent to commit murder, ofrice or even the defense attorney's deadly assault against a police officer office. The credibility of the paper and bringing a weapon onto campus. would have gone down the tubes." The 24-year-old Herndon allegedly Thus does editor Mike Sturman defend fired a shot on April 30 through the his decision to destroy his paper's pho­ window of Associated Students Presi­ tographs of a campus shooting incident dent Dan Soury, then ned from the rat her than turn them over to author­ scene and exchanged fire wit h police ities . before his capture. Daily Fo rly-Niner A senior at California State Univer­ staff photographers recorded the chase sity's Long Beach campus, Sturman and apprehension of the suspect . gathered together the negatives and After the paper ran the photographs prints, set a match to the pile, and the following day, an officer from the calmly watched them burn-knowing campus department of public safety re­ Says Sturman: "1 asked Ben (Cunn­ all the while that police intended to quested a copy of the negative of one ingham] about my options. Included subpoena the material. published print, saying he wanted to were comply, ignore the threat, let an Needless to say, local law enforce­ enlarge the section containing the sus­ officer stand in the darkroom while a ment officials don't think that was a pect . Editor Sturman told the officer it print was being made, have the negs very good idea. "It is irresponsible to is not Fo rty-Niner policy to release and prints removed from the news­ dest roy evidence," says Assistant Dis­ negatives, but agreed to provide him room without my knowing their loca­ trict Attorney Peter Bregman . who will with a copy of the photograph . tion or destroy everything. prosecute the suspect in the shooting The officer accepted the offer and "I destroyed everything." incident . "That substitutes your judg­ picked up the print, but less than five Now Sturman and the Daily Forty­ ment for t hat of the court." Bregman hours later his su perior called Depart­ Niner may be in trouble with the law. dismisses the Daily Fo rty-Niner 's con­ ment of Journalism Chairman Ben On May 8, Po rty-Niner photo editor C. cern over its credibility as afl impartial Cllnningham to repeat the request for W. Pinncik was served with a sub­ conduit of ne ws: "That 's not the the negative. After consultation, Stur­ poena requiring him to show up in point. " man again refused . court wi th "one copy of each photo­ What is the point , Bregman says , i� That did it for Department of Public graph (or negative thereot) taken April that the student newspaper may have Safety Director Jack Brick. who repor­ 30, 1979, relating to the Herndon inci­ thrown a wrench into the machinery of tedly told Cunningham. "We 'll have to dent, including, but not limited to justice. Horace W. Herndon, a Ca l go the subpoena route." shooting, chase, arrest , and crowd pic-

Fall 1979 SPLC Report 37 - Government Action

t ures and credits." Photographers Anne Knudsen, Don Tormey and Fran Tarjany were also ordered to appear as Armor for the Journalist witnesses. Congressman William Green (R.- journalists are defined as those who When editor Sturman told the prose­ N. Y.) has introduced legislation to gather news "for gain or livelihood. " cutor he had burned the subpoenaed create a national "shield law," A second part of the bill seeks to material. he was told he had violated a protecting newsmen from prosecution limit newsroom searches by law en­ law against destroying evidence. But for refusing to divulge confidential forcement agencies It is one of 12 such Sturman isn't so sure: "[T]hat is the sources or information before a judge . bills introduced in the House and entire question involved here . When is or tribunal. The bill would not apply to Senate this year, including a bill a piece of information gathered by a st udent journalists in most cases. . drafted by the Administ ration [see news organization evidence? [Prose­ H.R. 368 seeks 10 provide that "no SPLC Report, Vol. IT, No . 2] . cutor] Bregman said that the negative court, grand jury, or administrative was evidence as soon as the photo­ body ... shall require any profes· Green's shield law bill, if enacted, grapher, Fran Tarjany, took the pic­ sional journalist or newscaSler em­ would be similar to the existing New ture. Our attorney ...said something ployed with any newspaper [orl maga­ York Civil Rights Law (Sec. 79-h). Un­ isn't evidence until it is called for in zine ... to disclose any news, or the paid student journalists are not pro­ court. .. source of any news ..." Professional tected by that law. • Under California law , destroying evidence can be prosecuted as either a felony or misdemeanor offense. Assis­ tam District Allorney Bregman says this case "doesn't rise to felony status and so we referred it to the Long Beach City Prosecutor, who resolved to take no action at this time. " Bregman warned , though, that "if it results that the rights of [the defen­ Rep. Wil!iom Green, dant] are seriously hurt by not having author of the photographs, then the city attorney a shield la w may decide to prosecute." A spokes­ pending in Congress man from the city allorney's office says the misdemeanor offense carries a MARYlAND maximum penaltyof one year in jail or a $1 ,000 fine. Beyond the question of the act's le­ Double Jeopardy gality. Ihere is also the persist ant ques­ tion of whet her burning the pictures Officials in Baltimore have thrown the charges against him were dropped. was an ethical thing to do. Mike Stur­ out criminal charges against a sludent Gugliuzza, whose first arraignment man doesn 't see why nol : "If, and this pholographer and his journalism ad­ was postponed, appeared in court on is a big if, we had the only piece of in­ viser at Mervo High School. BUI Prin­ Augusl 13. The prosecutor there de­ formation t hat could lead to the arrest cipal Jack Phelan will be keeping an cided not 10 Iry his case. of a dangerous person, such as the eye on photographer Alan Da y, and if Attorney William Zinman , who re­ Hillside Strangler or Charles Manson, he has his way adviser Vincenl Gugli­ presents Gugliuzza, had earlier ex­ I might consider giving the authorities uzza will soon be teaching elsewhere. pressed confidence in his client's case: the information. Day and Gugliuzza, both of the "Logic and juslice are on our side. If "But this event took place in front Mervo Tec h. had been arrested and any twelve people hear the case, if of hundreds of eyewitnesses . It hap­ charged , respectively, with disorderly they're reasonable people, I think pened at the Student Union around conduct and interfering with an arrest they'll believe his version. What Gugli­ noon where hundreds of students were [see SPLC Report, Vol. II, No. 21 . uzza did didn'l constitute interference. eating lunch. The officials do not need The incident began when Day at­ If someone sees a seemingly improper the Forty-Niner photograph to place tempted to take pictures of a police arrest and makes inquiries, it's a the gun in their suspect's ha'nd." search of student lockers on March 28 . normal thing... Prosecutor Bregman disagrees with A security officer ordered Day 10 put The allorney had also predicted that the editor; "A subpoena doesn 't re­ away his camera, and then handcuffed "if (the arresting officer) tells the quire you to lurn over anything. It says the student when he prepared to take truth, I think we're going to win. Inler­ to bring the material with you to court. another picture. Adviser Gugliuzza , fe rence with an officer is an easy It is the judge's job to balance the im­ who then demanded to know why Day charge to make an arresl on, but he'll portance of the evidence against the was being arrested, was put in cuffs need evidence. " concerns of the press. When the press himself. Even clearing his name before the takes matters into its own hands, it is Day, called "an extreme disciplinary law, however, did not end Gugliuzza'S lawless .... They have an obligation problem" by Principal Phelan, ap­ worries. "There have been serious re­ to preserve all evidence." • peared May 28 in juvenile court, where percussions at schOOl," says the ad-

--_ . _ - _._._._...... _ .. _ ---- 38 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Government Action

viser. "The principal has requesled my involuntary transfer. He says it's be­ cause of Ihe way I operate, meaning on the paper." Principal Phelan denies the transfer request is a result of Gugliuzza's han­ dling of the Tech . "Teachers do not have a right to assignment to a partic­ ular school. Any principal can request that a teacher be transferred. 1 don't really need an explanation . He doesn 't fit inlo the harmony of Ihe group here," Phelan says. Phelan also says Gugliuzza is a "dis­ ruptive influence in school," but denies that he is unable to get along with the adviser. "He doesn 'I get along wi th me, " Ihe principal says. "1 get Open a along with 160ot her teachers." Gugliuzza's attorney disputes Phe­ Washington bureau lan's claim to an absolute right to transfer a teacher. "We oppose the transfer ," Zinman says, "because it is for only $118 based upon the exercise of Gugliuzza 's First Amendment rights and nothing

• more. What [Phelan) is really saying is, 'J am Iransferring you because you're a Until now, only commercial newspapers could aHord to controversial figure and I like it subscribe to a news service. Bul as more and more high school quiet .' .. newspapers report national news to their readers, there IS now Gugliuzza filed a grievance over I Phelan's evaluation and transfer re­ a service that can help your newspaper find the news that deals quest with regional superintendent with youth - the Student Press Service. � ! Boyce Mosley, and had a hearing in ! August. Mosley struck comments from Bob Woodward of the Wa shington Post calls SPS II a service the adviser's record thai said he is "a that has been needed for years and that will provide students negative asset to Ihe school" and de­ cided not to honor principal Phelan's with information which they can get from no other newspaper or transfer request . "I did not see su ffi­ magazine." cient evidence to substantiate those characterizations," Mosley says. A one-year subscription costs $18. You receive the SPS The regional superintendenl also News Report every two weeks during the school year, as we ll as changed Gugliuzza 's rating as a teacher special releases when the news can't wait . The material can from Phe lan's "needs improvement" to satisfactory. Gugliuzza, who wants be reprinted, but we encourage you to localize the stories for back last year's "good" rating, plans maximum benefit to your readers. Finally, SPS is a Washington to bring his grievance to the next higher bureau for your paper, to help you with stories of your own . level . And he may have other problems. Why not subscribe today? "You're not going to be teaching jour­ nalism next year," Gugliuzza says Phelan told him. The adviser says his principal would not comment further, and so he senl him a written request for 1 explanation . Student Press Service Phelan was unavailable for com­ ment. 1033 30th Street NW I Gugliuzza says he will sue Phelan if the principa1 removes him as jour­ Wa shington, J DC 20007 1 nalism teacher. but fears the process will be time-consuming: "II might be a (202) 965-4037 1 whole year before I get to be news­ paperadviser again." •

Fall 1979 SPLC Report 39 Libel

Th e Supreme Court 's two most recent libel rlliings will make it easier fo r plain/ijfs to win

The plaintiff in Proxmire was a be­ havioral scientist , Ronald Hutchinson, Open Season on who solicited more than $500,000 from the federal government to conduct a study of emotional behavior. Libel Defendenls Citing the scientist's st udy of certain behavioral characterist ics of monkeys, With two recent cases, the Supreme its truth. Private individuals need only such as a tendency to clench their jaws Court has paved the way for more libel show that the journalist was negligent under stress. Se nator William Prox­ suits against the press by narrowing the in allowing a libelous fa lsehood to be mire presented Hutchinson with the definition of "public officials" and printed . "Golden Fleece" award for outrag­ "public fi gures" for libel purposes. Public officials i nelude virtually all eous and wasteful spending of tax In Wolston v. Reader 's Digest Asso­ elected and many appointed govern­ dollars. In letters and press releases. ciation. the high court held that an in­ ment officers. Congressmen , city coun­ Proxmire charged that Hutchinson was dividual does not automatically be­ cilmen , superintendents and principals making a fortune at the expense of the come a public figure because he is in­ all qualify as public officials. Public American taxpayer. volved in a controversy of public inter­ figures are eit her persons of great fame The court fou nd that the scientiSI est . The court must look to the "nature (e.g. , Jackie Onassis) or individuals had not assumed any role of promi­ and exten," of the participation by the who voluntarily associ ate themselves nence in t he broad issue of government plaintiff to see if he has voluntarily be­ with a public controversy. spending, and consequently had not come involved in order to influence the Even though the plaintiff in Wolston invited the degree of public allention outcome of the controversy. allracted considerable media attention necessary 10 become a public fi gure. Tn Hutchinson v. Proxmire" the in 1958 when he was cited with con­ The court stressed that Proxmire co uld (;Curt held that an individual does not tempt for failing to appear before a not make the scientist a public figure become a public figure merely because grand jury investigating Soviet espion­ by directing media attention to the re­ he actively seeks and receives gcwern­ age, the court declared that he was not search, Ihereby creating his own ment fu nds. a public figure. defense. Unlike a private individual, a public Noting that the plaintiff had been in­ The court thus reiterated the central official or public figure who sues for voluntarily "dragged" into the espion­ prerequisite for public figure status-a libel is required to prove that a journal­ age controversy, the court held that voluntary associat ion with a public ist published false and damaging infor­ libel defendants must show more than controversy with the purpose of in­ mation with actual knowledge that it "mere newswort hiness" to receive the fluencing the resolution of the issues was false or with personal doubls as to benefit of the public figure rule. involved . •

--_.__ ...... --_._._._.. _ ...__ .•.. _... -- 40 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Libel

IOWA O-for-2 at Beleaguered 'Daily Iowan'

Newspapers, as a rule. do not relish story said The Boulevard Room is "-a But the judge said the innuendo did being sued . Especially when they lose. gay bar" an«;l "best resembles some noc extend to manager Fallon, and So editors at the University of Iowa 's Tokyo dive. " After. demanding and awarded damages of$I,500 each to the Daily Io wan were not celebrating July not receiving. a retraction, the owners two Madisons only. 7 when they got word they had lost filed suit . Attorney Boyle concedes that the their second consecutive Jibel suit in Owners Gene and Ethyl Madison feature was libelous per Quod but says fo ur months-a distinction they might and manager Tom Fal lon �o ught to re­ "Iowa case law has always been that easily have lived without. cover for damage to' their reputation there can be no award of damages on a

Now $3,250 poorer and perhaps just and personal humiliation s.u ffered as a libel per quod without . . . proo f of a lillie bit humbled, the Daily Iowan is result of.the feature. A Johnson Coun­ special damages. " Boyle has fi led post­ going lO sit back and try to figure out ty district judge. decided July 7 that the judgment motions for a new trial on what went wrong. publication was libelous per quod, or the issue. The campus paper was fi rst sued by' by innuendo. In both libel cases, the Daily Io wan university law student Bill Michelson , "In fact," said the judge, "it was conc�des it has been wrong, but the pa­ who charged that a lellers-page head­ more gossip than journalistic invest iga­ per does not intend to take MicheJson's line labeled him "Bloody Racist ." The tion. (The aut hor] did not state that advice of "blander" copy. Attorney headline appeared over an angry let ter The Bouleva rd Room was a place Boyle says, though, he has "advised from a Palestinian Arab criticizing where some 'gay' people were known them to check their facts." And with Michelson's pro-Zionist views on the to freq uent but couched the reference just a hint or irony in his voice, Boyle Middle East (See SPLC Reporl . Vol. in such a manner as to impute that the says, "They have been a bit more care­ II, No. 2]. Michelson accused the Daily only individuals to be found there were ful in the past year. ,. Michelson v. The Iowan of "throwing in (its] two cents" of a 'gay' character. The defendents Duily Iowan; Fa lfvn I'. The Daily with the offe nsive epithet ; editor Bill must answer for negligence .... " Io wan. • Conroy says the phrase was a quote from a portion of the letler that was UTAH edited out at the last moment. In January a co urt held that the headline was indeed libelous, and awarded the law student $ JO plu� costs. Muckraker's Lament The Daily Iowan didn't like that and appealed . Michelson then "got mad Unlike most journalists, Andrew Claiming that his ouster was due and cross appealed ," seeking greater Welch wants to be brought to court. solely to Welch's muckraking, Bruhn damages. Judge William Eads of the He wants to face libel charges-and sued the reporter for $52 million in Johnson County District Court ruled beat them. But his paper's insurance libel damages. Bruhn declared almost April 10 in Michelson's favor, and the company, unwi lling to risk a tri.al, has immediately that he would drop the law student won $250 plus costs. settled oul of court. suit if the university's insurance com­ Attorney Daniel Boyle, who repre­ In 1976, Welch, then editor of the pany would agree to pay him an undis­ sen ted the campus paper, says t he University of Utah Daily Chronicle closed sum of money . To Welch's sur­ Daily Iowan will not appeal again: and now invest igative producer for prise and dismay, it did. A Chronicle "The fac t sit ua tion was pretty bad-it NBC-affiliate KRON-TV in San Fran­ spokesman placed the settlement figure was just a gross mist ake . " cisco , wrote a series of news stories near $4,000.

Michelson , who ' says he wanted 10 about alleged improprieties involving Why pay? Although Welch main­ set a precedent that calling a Zionist a one of Utah's top gubernatorial aides. tains he "told the truth" and an insur­ racist is libelous per se, fe els t here is a While most of Ihe state's profes­ ance company attorney predicted the lesson in this for the Daily Io wan: sional media gave very little play to the reporter would stand a "75 1.0 80 per "The student editors have just got to story, Welch provided lengthy docu­ cent chance" of winning the case in learn 10 tone down their style to some­ mentation of the aide's alleged corrup­ court, the company said trying it would thing a little blander, because if they let tion. cosl more than $14.000. t heir personalities into t heir writ ing too The student editor reported that Wil­ freely, they'll wind up in court repeac­ liam Bruhn had indirectly promoted Nonet heless, Welch denounces the edly by offending many people." worthless stock to state em ployees, and decision to settle and the secret legal A seco nd libel suit against the also revealed t hat Bruhn had been a maneuvers that led up to it: "Appar­ !nwan, dating back (0 late 1975, was strong force behind Slate and federally ently, it doesn 't mailer if you tell the not decided until July. The paper pub­ funded minority assistance programs truth here at the university. Lel the lished a fe 1:tture story on December 12; that were found to be corrupt . word go fo rth that anyone who needs 1975 about a poetry reading at The The series was obviously read-at some pocket money should sue the Boulevard Room, a local bar. Entitled least by Bruhn's employers. They fired Chronicle-surely the insurance com­ "Eroticism in many tongues," the the gubernatorial aide. pany will come up with something." •

-- ---_ . __. ---- Libel

IllINOIS Ganging up on Embattled 'Daily Illini' The University of I ll i nois Daily JIIini successfully challenged one libel suit last spri ng only to find itself embroiled in anot her two months later. On May 8, Illinois Circuit Court Judge Creed Tucker dismissed a suit against the JIIini by the owners of a local drugstore. The newspaper had publ ished an article Apri l 20, 1978, re­ vealing that the Bloomington Discount Den , a Chicago-based chain with stores in the Champaign-Urbana area , had failed to pass on to its customers the manufacturer's discount on several items. The article also mentioned that another chai n drugstore, McBride's,' had "inconsistant pricing " on the same articles in each of its area stores . ent erprise t hat promises to save sub­ Corporal ion once operated the Mo­ According to JIIini publisher R ichard scri bers money on name-brand pro­ dern Gu ide to Buying, a compan y con­ Subletle, Ihe store owners "accepted ducts such as television sets and aulo­ victed in September 1978 of misrepre­ the article a ffirmatively, thanked us," mobi les . Subscription fees start at senting its seryices to clients . The and corrected the inconsistencies. $59.95 for a IO-year membershi p . co mpany has since left the Champaign The owners of the Discount Den, area . however, filed su it in Cook County illi­ The July 23 suit by Keyton and its nois Circu i t Coun asking for $250,000 C h a mpaig n re pres entative, Greg in damages. Paul Bartlet l and Leonard Evans, cha rged that the !/Iini anicle II Dardick com plained that their reputa­ No sooner had the lIIini was "false, libelous, and defamatory . tion had been harmed by the allegedl y It also charges that t he student paper libelous article. cleared its name refused to print a ret raction "when Arthur D. Nicol, attorney for the than it found itself confro n ted with its inaccuracies." /IIini, successfully obtained a change of But Sublette responds Ihat " I stand venue from Cook County, which en­ in another suit - by the story. A lot of research went in­ compasses the Chicago area, to Cham­ this time for $1 00,000 to it , and there weren't very many inac­ naign. in libel damages. curacies." He �ays t hal he rechecked There, Judge Tucker ruled that the facts in Tufano's story afler the "Dardick and Bartlell are not su ffi­ But publisher Sublette lawsuit was filed , and s(ill could fi nd ciencly ident i fied" by the article that stands by his story: nothing "false or defamatory." their reput ations could have been Sublette contends that (he only con­ "We won't print harmed by it." He also ruled that tact Keylon made with him was in a let­ " Ihere is no libel per se and ...t here a retraction unless ter April 9 by William F. Schwer, a are insu fficien t allegat io n s to support we have the facts." Blue Springs, Missouri. lawyer. The the charge of mal ice and fa lsity." letter. Sublet te says, contained no in­ No sooner had t he JIIini cleared its fo rmation other Ihan (he allegation name than it fo und itsel f in anot her that Tufano's story was libelous. sui t . The Keyton Co rporation of Cran­ Sublet te wrote Schwer soon afler, bury, New Jersey, filed a six-count , Tu fano's artic le quotes a state investi­ asking him (0 suppl y documentat ion of $100,000 libel suit in Illinois Circuit gator as saying the company is walking his charges. "We won 't print a retrac­ Court after a March 9 art icle by L inda "a fine line between what's illegal and (ion unless we have the facts," he says. Tu fano questioned many of t he com­ what's unethical , II and asserts that the Schwer never responded to Sublet Ie's pany's business practices. company may be mis represen ting itself lel ler. The KeYlOn Corporation is the par­ in its advert ising. No hearing dates have yet been ent company of the Buying Service, an The story also says (hat the Keyton set . ..

------_._- 42 SPLC Report Fall 1979 '1 .. Why Administrators Are Not the 'Publisher First Amendment rights. School officials defended on the Fo rrest by Claypool ground that the student newspaper was an educational When Hayfield High School editors La uren Boyd and tool-a part of the cu rriculum-and therefore under the Gina Gambino aUempted to pu blish an article in (heir administration's control. They argued that the school was school newspaper entitled. "Sexually Active Students Fail like a private publisher, with full rights (0 control content . To Use Birth Control," school officials told them the story Judge Albert V. Bryan, in a decision later upheld by the violated a school policy prohibiting distribution of birth U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, ruled in control information. favor of the students, holding that the school's censorship

The students were given the choice of pu blishing the ar­ violated First Amendment guarantees. I ticle with the "objectionable" passages censored-or not Why was the school's position rejected? Is not a school running the story at aU. They removed it. publication-created, sponsored and funded by school au­ But after an unsuccessful appeal to the Fairfax County thorities-subject to administrative control of content, (Virginia) school board, the two editors filed suil in U.S. just as a commercial newspaper is subject to the dictates of District Court. charging the board with violation of their its publisher?

------_._------::-=-:--::=--=:--- ._----- Fall 1979 SPLC Report 43 of freedom of expression for students . [n Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Distriel. ' the ForumTh eory landmark case that extended First Amendment rights to The answer, according to the clear weight of authority, students attending public schools, the court repeated that is Ito. Unlike private publishers, public schools are arms of "the vigilant protection of constitutional freedoms is no­ the state and therefore bound by the Constitution. Courts where more vital than in the community of American addressing the issue have unanimously held that school ad­ schools. " ministrators may not control the content of student news­ Since Tinker, courts have gradually accepted the idea papers merely because the pape rs are created and funded that a student newspaper is a "public forum" entitled to by the school. This is so even though they are written by full First Amendment protection . Courts have recognized journalism students for academic credit and are produced student papers as fo rums whenever they consist of some­ on school property with school facilities. thing more than "a mere activity time and place sheet ."6 The rationale for Judge Bryan's decision, as well as the More specifically, a student newspaper must be: (I) open other cases prohibiting censorship of the student press, is a to news, student editorials, or \etters to the editor and (2) legal concept known as the "forum theory." The forum distributed among the student body or community. Vir­ theory stands for the principle that once the government tually all student newspapers quali fy as forums. establishes a "forum" for public expression of views, it may not censor speech taking place within that forum. Censorship Once a forum for student expression is established, school authorities may not censor speech that is protected under the Fi rst Amendment. In Anlonne'ti v. Hammond, ' for instance. the court held unconstitutional a university policy requiring that student articles be submitted to school administrators before publication . Declaring that "the state is not necessarily the unrestrained master of everything it creates and fosters," the court emphasized t hat an educational institution's power to control curricu­ lum does not translate into a power to control the student press:

We are well beyond the belief that any manner of state regulation is permissible simply because it involves an activity which is pan of the university structure and is financed wi th fu nds controlled by the administration ....The creation of the fo rum does not give birth also to the power to mold its substance ....Having fostered a campus newspaper, the state may not im­ pose arbitrary restrictions on the matter to be commu­ nicated. • For example, if a city allows plays, speeches and meet­ ings at a civic auditorium, then that auditorium is a pu blic A similar attempt by the University of Mississippi to forum, and the city is acting unconstitutionally if it at­ censor a student magazine was prohibited by the court in tempts to prohibit a speaker on homosexual rights from Bazaar v. For/une .' The pu blication contained profanity addressing an audience there. 2 and a discussion of interracial love. Rejecting the universi­ The Supreme Court has consistently held that any state ty's argument that it was the "publisher" of the magazine, regulation of an established forum must not discriminate the court said: against individuals because of the views they seek (0 ex­ There is a more basic reason why the UniversilY can­ press. [n striking down a city ordinance that allowed only not be accorded the omnipotent position it seeks. The certain typeso f picketing near schools, the court held that : University here is clearly an arm of the state and this Once a forum is opened up to assembly or speaking by single fact will always distinguish it from the purely some groups, government may not prohibit others private publisher as far as censorship rights are con­ from assembling or speaking on the basis of what they cerned . It seems a well-established rule that once a imend to say . . ' , Government may not grant the use university recognizes a student activity which has ele­ of a forum to people whose views it fi nds acceptable, ments of free expression, it can act to censor that ex­ but deny use to those wishing to express less favored pression only if it acts consistent with First Amend­ or more controversial views . J ment constitutional guarantees. ,0

[n Southeastern Promo/ions v. Conrad. ' (he co urt ap­ Other cases have upheld the rights of high school editors plied the same ra tionale in reversing a city board's decision to publish ads condemning the Vietnam War," articles de­ to prohibit staging of the rock-musical "Hair" at the mu­ tailing methods of birth control,'2 and stories co ntaining nicipal auditorium. The board had based its decision on profanity." [n addition, courts have upheld the rights of the provocative, allegedly lewd nature of the show . Noting college editors to publish a four-letter reference to the uni­ the public nature of the auditorium, the Court conchlded versity president ," a photograph of a burning American that "the danger of censorship and abridgement of our flag," an editorial favori ng continued racial segregation of precious First Amendment freedoms is too great where of­ a universilY, '· advertisements about race relations, unioni­ ficials have unbridled discretion over a forum's use." zation and the Vietnam War," and criticism of the gover· II The Supreme Court has also recognized the importance nor and state legislature.

....,..-,,----::------,------,, ------_ .. --,,-. -.-.._ .... _. __._. _------.. _-_. _------_.. _ --._------_.. _ ... _, ... - 44 SPLC Report Fall 1979 The forum theory does not provide a license, however, Four courts, however, includi ng the U.S. Coun of Ap­ for student journalists to print anything they wish . Al­ peals for the Seventh Circuit, have held that prior review though censorship of most student expression is constitu­ of student publications is a violation of the First Amend· tionally forbidden, the Supreme Court has defined a nar­ ment.)< Moreover, even the federal circuits that have indi­ row class of cases in which school officials may censor the cated support for prior review have said it is only permis­ student press. In Tin ker, the same case in which the high sible under narrow guidelines which spell out in speci fic co urt recognized First Amendment protections for public and understandable terms what constitutes libel and ob· school students, the court indicated that censorship would scenity. To date, nOl a single set of guidelines has passed be permitted if the student expression would "materially conslitutional muster, and no court has ever upheld the disrupt dasswork or involve substantial disorder or inva­ prior restraint of a student publication on the grounds that sion of the rights of others ." it was libelousor obscene. Illustrative is the case of Sp eake v. Grantham," in which Of course, the fact that a school publication is a forum students at Southern Mississippi University were sus­ does not preven t school officials from regulating the time , pended fo r distributing leaflets falsely announcing that place and manner of distribution-provided such regula­ two days of classes had been cancelled. In upholding the tion is reasonable and does not hinder effective expression suspensions, the court said "it is obvious that where there of student views. For example, distributing newspapers is actual or po tentially disruptive conduct ...reasonable during class could be prohibited because of the commotion action by school authorities is constitutionally permitted." it woul d likely creale. But administrators could not stop As the court was quick to point out, however, "mere distribution at points away from classrooms." fear and apprehension of possible disturbance" is nol suf­ ficient to permit censorship. In each case, there must be a valid demonstration that the expression will likely produce a substantial disruption. Otherwise, it may not be pro­ hibited. The courts have also held that libelous or obscene expre­ ssion is not protected by the First Amendment. Bu t does it necessarily fo llow that school ad ministrators may censor suc h expression prior to publication and prohibit distribu­ tion? Or may they only punish students aft er the libelous or obscene material is printed and distributed? That remains unclear. due to a conflict among federal circuit courts . But forum theory analysis suggests that school authorities do not have the power to prohibit publi­ cation and distribution of student expression because of its libelous or obscene content. The Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment's primary purpose is the prevention of prior restraints on speech and press . In Near v. Minnesola, lO the court struck down a statute allowing suppression of libelous newspa­ pers before publication. The high court ruled that prior re­ WithdJ'3wal ofFinancial Support straint could only be justified under extraordinary circum­ Once a student publication is established as a forum, stances, citing as an exam ple the wartime restraint upon school officials may not cut off funds merely because they publication of troop movements. The possibility of libel find the content of the paper objectionable .l• In Joyner v. was not considered sufficiently extraordinary to justify Whiting, 17 the president of a predominantly black universi· prior restraint. ty revoked funding for the college newspaper because of A recent court decision inustrates the courts' continued the publication's advocacy of racial segregation. Holding application of the Nea r rationale. In Decker v. Lost Mini the action unlawful, the court said: Fleet Group, :' a New York court held that, although an in­ dividual may be sued for money damages afl er publication Censorship of constitutionally protected expression of libel, he may not be prohibited from disseminating the cannot be imposed at a college or un iversity by sus­ libelous remarks. In fact, the court held that a prior re­ pendi ng editors of student newspapers, suppressing straint on publication would be unconstitutional even if a circulation, requiring imprimatur of controversial ar­ publisher admitted the falsity of his statements and his in­ ticles, excising repugnant material , withdrawing fi­ tent to libel. nancial support, or asserting any other form of cen­ In declaring illegal every case of prior restraint that has sorship based on an institution's power of the purse." come before it, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that "prior restraints on speech and publications are the most Dismissal of Editors lindStaf fers serious and least tolerable infringement on First Amend­ If the student publication is a forum, then school offi­ ment rights. "" cials may not remove editors or reporters because of the Despite this strong language by the nation' s highest editorial content of their articles." In Dickey v. Ala­ court, at least two federal courts of appeals have suggested bama, JO a federal court ordered the readmission of a col­ that schools may exercise "prior review" of student publi­ lege editor after he was suspended for informing his read­ ca tions and delete copy t hat is libelous or obscene.1j Prior ers of the college's censorship of an editorial . Rejecti ng the review-a form of prior restraint-allows administrators administration's order to run a story about North Carolina to review student copy be fore its pu blication. hunting dogs in place of commentary critical of the gover-

Fal1 1979 SPLC Report 45 No theory of law suggests that any duty should arise when an individual is to prevent leg ally not permitted ForumTheory libel . Th is is even more realistic in light of Ihe realiza­ nor and legislalure, Dickey published a blank column wilh tion that the school subjecls itself to liability [under the work "Censored" em b lazoned across the top. The (he Civil Righls Act) to st udents when il unconstitu­ coun dismissed Ihe university's argument that Dickey's tionally acts to restrain publicalion .... It is also a readmission would jeopardize school discipline and said: fu ndameOlal element of lorl law that one who owes a duty and a Slandard of care must also have a right A stale cannot force a college student fo rfeit his 10 10 mai nlain that standard. If one is neil her in a legal nor constitutionally protected right of freedom of expres­ practical posit ion to fu lfill Ihe duty. no u h duty can sion as a condition to h is attending a state-supported s c reasonably be imposed . 16 institution .... The defendants in this case cannot punish Gary Clinton Dickey for his exercise of this Right constitutionally guaranteed right by cloaking his ex­ or Access pulsion or suspension in Ihe robe of "insubordina­ A necessary corollary to the forum theory is a right of tion. access the student re by individuals other than the "J 10 p ss newspaper's editors and slaffers. The same legal principles Courts have also reinstated student editors suspended that prevenl adm inislrative censorshi p of student articles fo r ignoring ad ministrative orders to submit copy for prior would seem mandate equal access to the student news­ approval, " for publishing a letter to the editor conlaining 10 paper by individuals with compeling ideas, at least in the a profane reference to the univers ity president , and for JI form of paid advertisements or perhaps announcemen ts publishing conlaining faulty grammar and a newspaper and letters the ed itor. spelling.,. 10 Al though COUrlS have clearly held that school adm inis­ Irators may not prevent equal access to the stud n press, it e t remains unsettled whether sludent editors have an affirm a­ live dUly to accept advertisements or letters. Sludent news­ papers should logically be conduits for competing view­ points . Co nsequently , some restrictions on the power of student edilors to refuse editorial advertising and letters to the editor would seem to be imposed by Ihe free speech doctrine. As expressed by the Fourth Circuil Coun of Ap­ peals:

A college newspaper's freedom from censorship does not necessarily imply that its facilities are the edil or's private domain. When a college paper receives subsidy from t he state, there are strong arguments for insisting that its columns be open to expression of contrary views and that its pu blication enhance, nOI inhibit, free speech ."

Of course, some discretion musl be vested in school editors because of the limiled space available for news and commentary. But forum theory analysis suggests thai rea­ Liabilily access sl udent newspapers is constitutional re­ sonable 10 a Since schools are not publishers, and under Ihe forum quirement. theory may not censor non-disruplive sludenl e pres ion, It should be noted that the right of access to stude nt x s who is responsible in the event a student article is libelous newspapers is inapplicable to the commercial press. Be­ or obscene? cause commercial newspapers are privately owned and One theory, of course. ho lds Ihal the school is publisher operated . their rejection of outside commenlary does nOI and hence responsible for any libel. This view has some violate the First AmendmeOl-which prohibits only the support , including a legal opinion issued by the auorney government from stifling the free dissem ination of ide . as Jt general of Oregon." However, not a single reported case However, in both the educat ional and commercial set­ has been handed down in sup rt of such a view. More­ ting, responsible journalism would seem to r u re a liber­ po eq i over, in ligh t of Ihe fo rum Iheory and Ihe line of cases cor­ al policy of accepting alternate views I hrough guest editor­ reclly applying its rat ionale. it would seem Ihat no liability ials. lellers to the editor or paid advertising. It is particu­ could be imposed. since schools are not empowered ce ­ larly important for students. as citizens and uture leaders, 10 n f sor student publications. have access to free forum for the exchange of ideas 10 a Nonetheless. in those circuits where courts have held and opinions. The Supreme Court recognized as early as 1943 signi­ prior review of student publications permissible under nar­ the row guidelines, school systems and a visors be sub­ ficanceof this free flow ofst udenl expression Ihat the for­ d might ject to libel suits, since they would theoretically maintain um theory makes possi ble. Referring to the role of schools the power control libelous cont nt . in a free society. the court emphasized: "That they are 10 e However, liability wou ld more reasonably seem to rest educat ing Ihe young for citizenship is reason for scrupu­ solely with the student aUlhors and editors. Based on lous prolection of Conslitutional freedoms of the individ­ a principles. educa­ ual, if we are not strangle the free mind al ils source and sound First Amendmenl and IOTt l w 10 teach youth discount importanl principles of our gov­ lional institutions should not be subjeci to liabililY for defa­ (0 mation. As summarized by one student press law scholar: ernment as mere platitudes. , ,,. •

------_.•...... _--_ .. _ .. _-_ ...._-_ ... _-- 46 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Footnotes Read All I. Gambino v. Fa irfax CounlY School Board, 4 29 F. Supp. 731, a/I' d 564F.2d 157 (4(h Cir. 1977). 2. Alaska Gay Coalilion v. Sullivan, :I MEl). L. REP. 2297. About :I. Police Depart menl of Ihe Cily of Chicago v. Mosley. 408 U.S. 92, 95 (1975). 4. 420 U.S. 546 (1975). It! 5. 393 U.S. 503 (1969). 6. Zucker v. Panilz, 299 F. Supp. 102 (S.D.N.V. 1969). 7. 308 F. Supp. 1329 (0_ Mass. 1970). 8. !d. al 1337 . 9. 476 F.2d 570 (51h Cir. 1973), modified4 89 F.2d 225 (1973). Published once each winl er. spring and fall. 10. {d. at 574. SPLC Report is an invaluable resource for 1 I. Zucker v. Panilz, supra , n.6. sludent journalists and faculty advisers_ 12. Bayer v. Kinzler, 383 F. Supp. 1164 (E.D.N. Y. 1974), a/I'd SIS F.2d 504 (2nd Cir. 1975); Gambi no v. Fairfax County Detailed summaries of conflicts over student School Board , supra n. l . press rights. Clear-headed legal analyses of 13. Koppel l v. Levine, 347 F. Supp. 456 (E.D.N. V. 1972). major issues. Highlights of courl and legislative 14. Thonen v. Jenkins, 49 1 F.2d 722 (4th Cir. 1973). action. And interesling features and 15. Korn v. Elkins, 317 F. Supp. 138 (D. Md. 1970). commentaries. 16. Joyner v. Wh il ing , 477 F.2d 456 (41h Cir. 1973). 17. Lee v. Board of Regents, 306 F. Supp. 1097 (W.D. Wis. 1969), l(fj'd 44I F.2d 1257 (7 th CiL I971). Yo ur subsc riplion price of $5.00 for students. 18. Dickey v. A labama , 273 F. Supp. 613 (M.D. Ala . 1967 ), $10.00 fo r non·students. will help us continue to dismissed (IS moOi sub nom. Troy St al e Univer�ity v. Di ckey, serve as the national First Amendment advocate 402 F.2d 515 (51h Cir. 1968). for students. Other contributions are tax· 19. 317 F. Supp. 1253 (S. D. Miss. (970). a/I'd 440 F.2d 1351 deductable. (51h Cir. 197 I ) (per curiam). 20. 283 U.S. 697 (1931). 21. 4 MED. L. REP. 1 828 (N.V. Su p. CI . 1 97 8) . Please enter my subscription to 22. Nebraska Press Association v. Sruart . 427 U.S. 539, 559 SPLC Report: ( 1976). o 1 year at $5.00 - fo r students 2:1 . Sha nley v. NOr! heast I ndependen I School Disl rict . 462 F.ld 960 (5th Cir. 1972); Nitzberg v. Parks, 525 F.2d 378 (41h o 1 year at $10.00 - fo r non·students. libraries. ei r. 1 975). schools and pu blications 24 . Fujishima v. Board of Education, 460 F.2d 1355 (7l h Cir. 1972); Antonelli v. Ham mond, supra , n.7; Poxon v. Board of o enClosed is a check. payable to. Education, 341 F. Su pp. 256 (E.D. Cal . 1971); Bright v. Los Student Press Law Center Angeles School Distriel, 18 Cal . 3d 450 (1976). 1033 30th St. NW 25. Trager, Roben and Dickerson, Donna, College Student Wa shington, DC 20007 Press Law. Urbana. III.: ERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills (1976), 7. o bill me later 26. Joyner v. Whiting, supra n. 16; Korn v. Elkins, !iUpra n.15; Antonelli v. Hammond. supra n.7. 27. Sl/pra. n.16. Name (please pl1nl) 28. {d. at 460. 29. Dickey v. Alabama, supra n. 18; Trujillo v. Love. 322 F. Address ______. __... .. _ ....__ Supp. 1 266 (1971); Schiff v. Williams. 519 F.2d 257 (51h Cir. 1975). 30. Supra, n . 1 8 . 31 . Supra al 618. 32. Trujil lo v. Love, slIpra. n.29. City. State. Zip ______. ____ .. _ . 33. Thonen v. Jenkins. supra. n. 14. 34 . Schiff v. Williams. supra , n.29. o I wish 10 supporl Ihe work of the SPLC with 35. Opinion nO. 7630. a contribution in Ihe followi ng amount: 36. Fager, Chris. Ownership ilnd Conlrol of the Studenl Press: A Firsl Amendment Analysis, (unpublished treali�e). 38-39. 37. Joyner v. Whit ing, Slipra. n.16, at 462. SPLC is interested in the litles or positions 38. Miami Herald v. Tor n i llo . 418 U.S. 24 I (1974). 39. West Virginia Stale Board of Education v. Barnel le, 319 of its individual subsc ribers: U.S. 624, 637 (1943).

Fall 1979 SPLC Relpo rt 41 Noteworthy MINNESOTA DAILY Judgment - .. -...... � Day for ---.. ." ..... - 'Minn. Daily' SPEAKS ! At first glance you'd (hink the Uni­ versity of Minnesota's Minnesota p.19 Daily had pulled off the bi ggest scoop in the history of journalism . But an interview with Jesus Christ is hard to Nuclear trash come by, so the Daily went with the next-best thing-a ficticious conversa­ disposal just tion with the Lord in its annual lam­ a swallow away poon edi tion. p Now it seems as if the ent ire state of .51 .. * Minnesota is steaming mad. Religious * leaders , students, administrators, fa­ 'I Got culty members, regents and even Gov· ernor Al Quie are determined to punish Nailed': a the Daily for what Quie calls its "vul­ true-life gar and insult ing 'humor issue.' ,. crucifixion The question -and-answer session (next week) wi th the Almighty-billed under a ban ­ ner headline proclaiming, "CHRIST * * .. SPEAKS!"-was nOI the only joke Disco scandal that turned sour in the mouths of many Daily readers. exposed! Loosely modeled on Na tional En ­ p_12 quirer, the 4Q-page ed iti on also in­ ... * * cl uded ed itorials urging that Skylab "fall on as many people as possible­ Keith Richard preferably on the poor and ignorant" finds rock-and­ and advocating a reinstatement of the roll alternative: draft "to keep Old Glory flying. " God In addition, the joke issue featured p.20 insulting columns about student gov­ ernment leaders, comic strips wilh pro­ fa nity, and a photo essay depicting a coed 's seduction of her psychology professor. Why? A Daily spokesman said the lampoon was intended to help the campus "blow off steam" during fi nals week . Horror on the Malll All this and That 's not exactly the way it turned p.8 out. Governor Quie personally chas­ MORE I!! t ised Daily editor Kate Stanley for the prank. saying it was "not regarded as of t heir tax money goes 10 support the set t han governor Quie. About 70 de­ amusing by many Minnesotans who Daily. Eighty percent of the paper's monstrators from the Minneapolis-SI . shared their thoughts with me." The revenues come from advertisemenl s. Paul Catholic community marched humor issue, Qu ie said, went "well be­ The governor also suggested that the with placards saying "Sick Humor yond Ihe limits of satire." university fi nd so m e other vehicle for Should Be Pitied . Not Tolerated " and To console offended Minneso tans, its official notices and that student sub­ "Filth Is Not News." The protesters the governor sent them a printed lette r scriptions be made voluntary. At pre­ deplored the Daily 's "ant i-Christian labeling t he issue "disgust ing," "de­ sent, the a nnual subscription price is sentiment ... grading ," "offensive," and a "regret­ deducted from each student's activity Th e Catholic Bulle/in . official news­ table display of poor taste." Quie also fee . letter of the twin cities ' Roman Cat h­ assured the letter's recipients that none Religious leaders are even more up- olic Archdiocese, owr te June II that

_- .__ ...... _ ... _. -...."...,.,-- --_...... ----- 48 SPLC Report Fall 1979 Noteworthy

the paper was "the latest and worst ex­ ample of journalistic excrement to belch fo rth " from the Minnesota Daily. Then the Board of Regents got into the ac t. "We feel that it is in extremely poor taste and is i nco nsiste nt with the high principles . . . established for the un iversity, " they resolved . "In the name of common sense and decen cy, we have t he responsibi l it y as citizens and members of this Board to assert ourselves that this is not right." Beyond making resolutions, how­ ever, the board has no plans to act on the Daily 's co ntroversial edition. A board subcommittee recommended August 6 that no changes be made in the Daily 's student fu nding mechan­ ism. The fu ll board voted 9-3 to accept the recommendation on August 9. NORTH CAROLINA Two more antagonists surfaced to attack the Daily 's joke issue. Some outraged students formed an ad hoc Try, Try Anti-Defamation Committee, and state senator Jerome Hughes proposed a re-evaluat ion of the paper's relation­ Again ship wilh the university. But Hughes, who is chairman of the Se nate Educalion Committee, soon came under si milar scrutiny himself. A Allorney Hugh Beard Jr. of an end I the rraclice, lhe return June 19 memo randu m from the Min­ hario((c, North Carolina, . ee m� f previously collccled ludent 10 be a Irong nr po nen! f [he ir­ fees , and ourl co. r • The Daily nesota Civil Liberties Union calls al-fir�t-you-don '1-. uccced philo­ Ta r He I received morc lhan Hughes' rhetoric "an effort to censor sophy. Ht is representing a :>maU $50,000 from �uch fee� during Ihe the content of fu ture i ssues of t he group of tudent -again-in a 197 -79 chool year. Daily. " 'las!i-aClion uil challenging Ihe Attorney Beard con l ends thaI MCLU representatives said the sen­ rig.ht of t he Univer ily of North Lhe Ta r Heel i an agency of the ate "has no business exam i ni ng the arolina'. Daily Tar Heel to usc �[atc and say iL i' illegal for a .tale co ntent of a student newspaper." add­ fu nd aken from manda t ory tu­ 1 0 compel any individual to 11- by ing that "censorship any branch of dent acti ilY fce . nant�c viewpoint · wilh which he government ...is insulting to the First The oung al lorney broughl an di agrees . Concedi ng thai he lost Amendment of t he U.S. Const itution un lIcee. ful . Uil against I he Ta r L he 1972 'ase \ ith Ihe arne a rgu ­ and to the basic rights of the citizens of 1-1 lover lhe ame i ue in 1972, ment� . Bear \ •. a 1977 u prcmc t his state," nne year afler grad uat ing from the 'OUrl opinion help_ reinforce his A few others defended the Minne­ uni cr ilY law school . "I have a po ilion. sota Daily over the loud Objections of per. anal .lake in lhl.: C �c-in lhe Norlh Carolina Deputy A l I or ­ much of the un iversit y co mmunity. �eme lhal I was orpo. ed LO com­ nco General d peas . who i. de­ The Minnesota Press Club and the uni­ pulsory ri ntlncing of t he paper fe ndi ng Ihe univer ity in Ihe l a \. . versity's Sc hool of Journalism both is­ when I w� al Ilhe university} . " !.uit , di ,grc('s: "II i. our po5ilion sued strong statements of support for a s Beard. l h a l (he i,!>uc. are Ihe arne � ill the embattled paper . Hi!> cl ien t . Ja ' and Richard 1972. The law has n t changed ." Kania nd Michael Morri , are all pe' . hal. ri led a Illolion 10 di mis.. And the Twin Ci l ies Newspaper current studcnl� a( the univcr ilY. t he suit on Ihe ground thai Ihe i - Guild issued a not-so-s ubtle threat : They are chal lenging the Ta r ue hru: alread been Iii igalcd co n ­ "You k now how fast we'd ru n to the Heel's u. e of mandaI ry fec. ns il 'Iusively in the arne jurisdicl ion. courthouse if any governmental agency iolalion r the Fir�1 and Fo ur­ A hearing on (he mOl ion ( dis­ t ried to restrict the Minnesota Daily," teenLh A mend menl: . aming Iht mi�. w. s hcdulcd ror Augu s l 21 As it looks now, with the crisis university'. governin offidal� 3!> al the imc 'PL Reporf wcnt I begi nni ng to recede, both the court­ defc-ndan!. • r he [Inee . t udcnt � \cck prc!-os. Kania \'. Toy /or. • house and t he Daily 's enemies will be spared . •

_ _ . . .. -.- .•.. _ ... _ ...... _. .._. .. _ .... -----.-. - . ---.. ---.. ------.. - Fal1 1979 SPLC Report 49 either Foley did not understand the case Or he intentionally disreg rded precedent because he did not wiash to sanction a magazine {hat offe nde him. d Judging I tend to believe the latter. It is a phenomenon that is sadl y common in today's result -orient ed j udiciary If a )KIges judge oes not like the probable conse­. quencesd of a parti ular ruling, he may nOI make it-evenc t heory and prac­ if by Barton Gellman tice point heavi ly l oward tha t side. That k ind of behavior goes directly Let me con fess from the start thaI p. 25], invol ves the publication of a against the grain of our traditions of this will nOI be an exercise in objectiv ­ rat her racy magazine called Hard justice. Tru e, a judge might ex­ be ty. I am not the ideal editorialist-de­i Times. The second , in Philadelphia pected to inject his gut feelings and tached , ou t of the l imelight , un i n­ (see p. 28] , i nvolv s a r t h r innocuous com mon sense into a case involving e a e volv . ui te the ontrary , I have-or newspaper called t he To wn Crier. vague or sketchy precedenl . But he has moreed coQrrectly, oncec had-a directly Hard Times in luded such features no business allowing any private opin­ c vested inlerest in what I am abo ut to as a story on "wreslling cheerleaders" ion 10 inter fere with his inlended func­ write . But at the risk of being declare and editorial on mast urbat ion . Not tion as an lo w. [f I he an arbiter oj the unduly partisan, I'm going to devoted the zenit h of constructive journalism . clear weight of legal authority rests t his space to a d scussion of judicial perhaps-bul certainly not libelous or with one side, he is duty-bound to re­ impropriet y. i obscene by leg l standards. Nor. in this spect th e rule of law. case , did dist raibu tion disrupt the nor­ Judge Foley may or may not have There. Now I ' m doubly suspect . Not mal functioning of the school . fai led in Ihat dUlY, as il is not at all only am I writi ng about a vested inter­ That did not stop school officials clear he underSlOod the legal issues. In es t, but I'm going to crit icize judges. from suspend ing the st udent writers Ihe Philadelphia case, however , I do And oddly enough in this freesl of soci­ and confiscating t he m ster copy six not believe I here is any question that eties, the subject is j ust a lillie bit days after distribution. aIt wasn 't that the j udge bad fa ith. Perhaps taboo. Judges seem to float somehow the magazine had done any demon­ it's naturalacte ford mein t o think so. I was in a nether region within and aro und strable harm, mind you -j ust thaI the one of the plaintiffs in the To wn Crier and even above the law. They decide school board presiden t thoughl it was con flict. the fate of every citizen, exercise vast "the worst thi ng she had ever seen." My co-editors and I at George Wash­ political and economic control. They If the school bo rd ' s decision was la­ ington High School decided to print a are, well , judges . You don't go around mentably ignorant,a the judge' s was un­ Sl ory on birth control, de spite our prin­ badm outhing them. acceptably so. The Honorable James cipal 's w rning that Ihe piece was But I think that is in itsel f part of the T. oley ruled that the school officials' "i llegal " aand that we would have 10 . problem Judges wield the broadest actionsF had been nOl hi ng more than "face the consequences" of publishi ng powers in government with little of the the pro per d iscipline of "insubordinate il . Just hours after the paper rolled off inconvenience of accounlabilily. Rare­ sl udents " The slightly puzzled jurist the printer's press, the principal seized ly are Ihey scrutinized by the press and went so . ar as 10 say he did not believe the issues and dragged them off to the the public. Even more ra rely are Ihey Ihis "highf school adventure" even school vaull. Then she shu I down t he rebuked by thei r superiors. Federal belonged in a federal court . paper indefinitely. ThaI was lale Octo­ judges needn't even worry about occa­ In the wake of Ti nker and the dozens ber of sional bouts with a ballol box-t hey of other c ses expanding the rights of We 19sued77. the principal and school are appoint ed for life. st udent joua rnalists in I he pasl decade . board, and had an expedited, fo ur-day What l OpS them, Ihen, you mighl o ey 's opini on is roughly par in an­ hearing in ovem ber before U.S. Dis­ as k , fromS abusing thei r consi erable Fachronistic[ value with a criminal sen­ trict Judge NJohn B. Hannum. hen we d T powers . from h ndi ng down oUlrag­ tence of horse-wh i pping. It ncon ­ began to wail . We assu med that since eous or arbitrary adec isions few min­ ceivable Ihat the Second Circuilis iCourt the l i meliness of a newspaper is of such ? A utes' perus l of SPLC files might sug­ of Appeals will fai l to reverse him. intrinsic importance, our case w'ould gesl Ihal theare is very IiUle. Aside from But Ihat is not rea lly the poin l . meril Hannum's prompt at tent ion . We impeachment. in fact , there is no way oley ' s decision is not merely contro­ were wrong . to regulate judicial conduct-and on versialF or questionable. II does not deal It gradually became clear that Han­ t wo hands you could probably count with a Iroublesome area of t he law. It num, a former school board member the /lumber o f i ac ments is just dead wrong , vi rtually un­ hi msel f, did not think "children" hisl ory. mpe h in U.S. fo unded either in precedenl or theory. should be printing an article aboul con­ Judicial abuses and jusl plain OU(­ Judge Foley should know this, as Ihe tracepl ion . He seemed very concerned rageous decisions, of course , are nOI sludenl s ' attorney was good enough to it might promote poor moral values. In nearly so r re . In th i s issue of SPLC provide him wil h the relevant case law. his private chambers, he told our attor­ Report, at a least I wo cases come to So wh t are we 10 make of his rul­ neys he thought we were "irrespon­ mind. The rst , in New York st te fsee ing? Therea are only two possibil ities; sible" and "immature . " I am certain fi a

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that if he felt he could have gotten away with ruling against us, he would have done so. But he didn't. He just did nothing. Winter passed, then spring. The To wn SPLC Crier office sat em pty, unused . Come J une, I graduated. Internship Opportunities About this time, Hannum an­ nounced-unofficially. in chambers­ SPlC Report IS wr itten, edIted and designed entIrely by student inter ns Crier 's that he fe lt the To wn sup­ working OUI 01ofh ces In Washing on, D C. A team of four inlern pression had been a "technical con­ produced the lall Repon. stitutional violation," and suggested we negotiate a compromise. A It!ch­ Forrelt Claypool, 22. is a second-year law student at t he UniverSity nical conslilurionol violation. That 's of illinoIs. where he has been named to Ihe law review staff. A the semantic equivalent of "technically UMlerslly High Honors graduate 0' Southern IIIrnols UniversIty. where pregnant" or "technically dead ." Like he majored In ournalism , Claypool has served as a reporlerand a scotch-tape-and -string repair job, l aSSlslsnt advertiSIng manager for The Dally Claypool 's Hannum's language did little to hide Egyptian. Internship was funded by the Gannett Newspaper Foundation. and nothing to correct a sorry st ate of affairs. We didn't want to negotiate a com­ David Danner, 23. is a graduate 01 Columbia University. where he was promise. We didn't feel we should have a staff member of the Daily Spectator and contribUlIng editor of the to compromise our First Amendment Columbian yearbook. Danner has worked for the sports department of rights . We told the judge that . Nothing the Por tland Oregonian and was house organ edilor at Scholastic happened . Magazme in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. A nalive 01 Portland, Another winter passed . Another Oregon. he has recently been hiredas managing editor 01 News Media

spring. Now the graduation date for and the Law. Danner ' s internship was funded by Ihe Robert F. the last of the plaintiffs was approach­ Kennedy Memorial. ing. Judge Hannum applied more and more pressure on both sides to com­ Barton Gellman, 18, is a sophmore at Princeton University, where he promise, hinting to us he would declare hopesto enroll in lhe Woodrow Wilson Schoolfor Public and the issue moot once my former co­ International Affairs. An assislan' news editor and beat leader al The editors gradua ted . Dally Prinoetonian, Gellman was editorof his high school paperand We gave in. We settled with the Phil­ helpedfound Kaleidoscope Magazine, a cily-wide high school adelphia school board , winning a frac­ publication in Philadelphia. Gellman's internship was funded by the tion of what we deserved . In the pro­ Gannett Newspaper Foundation. cess, we agreed to accept a set of publi­ cation guidelines that no judge in the Bob Stuk., 21, IS a freshman al ,he University of Southern United States-including, of course, california, where he is majoring in urnalism and international Hannum-would be likely to affirm as jo const it u t ional . relations. A political cartoonislwho has won countless awards in stale Why did we do it? Why not let Han­ and nallonal competitions. Staake has turned downsyndica tion offers num declare the case moot , then ap­ from King Features. The Los Angeles Times and others. The california peal? Because he would have been native now draws fIve cartoons each week for the USCDaily Trojan right. It would have been an outra­ and appearsf requently in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, South geously circular argument, but he Bay Daily Breeze. and San PedlO New·Pilot. would have been right. He had sat on the case so long he was no long er re­ The Siuden' Press Law Center offers internships during each school quired to rule on it at all. semester and the summer for high school, college. and law students By thus ignoring the issue for 20 interested in journalism or law . months, Hannum forced us to give away a portion of our constitutional Interns research and produceS PLC Repon, handle requests for guarantees with no pracrical means of infor matIon on student press fights. assist Ihe director in liugarlon with appeal. This when he cle arly, demon­ paralegal support and partlcipale in Ihe Center's rundraiSing acllvilles. strably understood that our rights had The Center provides its tnterns wilh stipends . and academic credit IS been violated . somellmes available. Thai is why I consider Hannum 's conduct far more abhorrent than Judge Inlerested sludents are encouraged 10 apply 10. Foley's. Foley, at least, made no at­ The Studenl Press Law Cenle' . 1033 30lh Slreel NW. tem pt to con found the appellate pro­ Wa hlnglon. DC 20007. (202) 965·4017 cess, and I have no doubt he will be overturned . Hard Times will be vindi­ cated . The To wn Crier will never be .•

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student press law center project o ( the nOA·t:f. ohl org a us po stage f. kennedy memorial robert p a, d 1029 31st st nw washington, de washington de 20007 perm,. no 4t.d4d

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A TTENTION: Student Publication