PLUS: High school editors launch independent paper to protest censorship The Facebook Standard Minnesota Supreme Court lowers speech protections for some college students INSIDE: Faculty-run journalism projects may raise concerns for student media REPORT RT @SPLC.org Fall 2012 VOL. XXXIII, NO. 3 STAFF Read the latest News Flashes The Student Press Law Center Report (ISSN Brian Schraum, McCormick 0160-3825), published three times each year Foundation Publications Fellow, online at www.splc.org by the Student Press Law Center, summarizes received his master’s degree in current cases and controversies involving the journalism from the University of The Independent Florida Alligator at the rights of the student press. The SPLC Report is Missouri, where he studied media researched, written and produced by journalism University of Florida is fighting a school law and policy. He graduated from interns and SPLC staff. Washington State University in 2007. Schraum plan to remove 19 of the paper’s iconic The Student Press Law Center Report, Vol. orange newspaper racks and replace them previously interned for the First Amendment XXXIII, No. 3, Fall 2012, is published by the Center in Nashville and for newspapers in with university-owned racks. Editors are Student Press Law Center Inc., 1101 Wilson Washington and Missouri. He also initiated concerned the policy could be detrimental Boulevard, Suite 1100, Arlington, VA 22209- efforts to enact student press rights legislation to their readership and press freedom. 2275, (703) 807-1904. Copyright © 2012 in Washington and was a high school, commu- Student Press Law Center. All rights reserved. nity college and university student journalist. The Michigan Daily is facing a defamation Yearly subscriptions to the SPLC Report are $15. Contributions are tax-deductible. lawsuit filed by a Canadian hockey club, Sydni Dunn, summer 2012 following a story that alleged the team journalism intern, is a senior offered money to a University of Michigan- journalism major at Louisiana bound player. The lawsuit, filed in Ontario, State University. She is editor-in- seeks $1 million in damages. chief of LEGACY magazine, and has been a news intern at The EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Frank LoMonte Times-Picayune in New Orleans and a freelance Two Texas girls were arrested for creating a ATTORNEY ADVOCATE: Adam Goldstein fake Facebook account that used the name DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Beverly Keneagy reporter for The Advocate in Baton Rouge. She of a classmate. The girls, ages 12 and 13, has also served in several capacities at LSU’s face a third-degree felony count of “online CORPORATE BOARD OF DIRECTORS student newspaper, The Daily Reveille. impersonation.” Meanwhile, administrators Organizations for identification purposes only Nikki McGee, summer 2012 at Minnesota school are investigating a Javier Aldape l Journalist Twitter account they say was created by several Chicago, Ill. journalism intern, is a junior at the University of Missouri— students and graduates of Worthington High Caesar Andrews l University of Nevada at Reno Columbia studying strategic School to gossip about classmates. And North Reno, Nev. communications with an interest Carolina has now made it illegal for students A.J. Bauer l Graduate Student in investigative reporting. She to make fake social media profiles mocking New York, N.Y. first became involved with SPLC as editor-in- school administrators with the intent to chief of her high school paper, The Wolf’s Howl. Patrick Carome l WilmerHale “intimidate” or “torment.” Washington, D.C. In addition, she has worked at The St. Charles Suburban Journal and MUTV. The Michigan Supreme Court has Kevin Corcoran l Lumina Foundation Indianapolis, Ind. struck down a Michigan State University Taylor Moak, summer 2012 ordinance which made it a criminal offense Susan Enfield l Highline Public Schools journalism intern, is a senior at to “disrupt the normal activity” of certain Burien, Wash. the University of Kentucky, where university employees. The court ruled the Maureen Freeman l Newseum she studies print journalism. ordinance was too broad and infringed on Washington, D.C. Moak was the 2011-12 editor-in- chief of UK’s daily independent free speech rights. Andrew Lih l University of Southern California Los Angeles, Calif. student newspaper, the Kentucky Kernel, and A Tennessee high school journalism adviser will be the projects editor when she returns to Frank LoMonte l Student Press Law Center campus this fall. was reassigned after the school’s yearbook Arlington, Va. (ex officio) published an article titled “It’s OK to be gay,” Laura Lee Prather l Haynes and Boone LLP Seth Zweifler, summer 2012 a profile of a then-senior who discussed his Austin, Texas journalism intern, is a junior at decision to come out as gay. James Yoakley, Geanne Rosenberg l CUNY—Baruch College the University of Pennsylvania, who advised the Lenoir City High School New York, N.Y. where he studies communica- newspaper and yearbook for six years, tion and public service. He is the believes the reassignment was motivated by Mary Stapp l Educator Washington, D.C. campus news editor of The Daily the backlash over the yearbook. Pennsylvanian, and has previously worked with Mark Stencel l National Public Radio Main Line Media News. In 2010, he was named Washington, D.C. Get updates from the SPLC via the Pennsylvania High School Journalist of the Mark Stodder l Dolan Media Year by the Pa. School Press Association. Email: www.splc.org/joinemail Minneapolis, Minn. (chair) Twitter: Follow us @SPLC Reginald Stuart l The McClatchy Company Contributors: Sara Gregory, Zoe Schaver, Sean Facebook.com/StudentPress Silver Spring, Md. Mussenden, Jock Lauterer, Mark Vancleave, Pam Dempsey, VectorStock. Cover: MARk VANCLEAVE/MINNESOTA DAILY 22 SPLCSPLC Report Report l l FallFall 2012 2012 Hazelwood symposium to mark 25th anniversary INSIDE High school This coming Jan. 13, America marks an anniversary that is no cause for celebration. It soon will be 25 years since the Supreme Court rolled back the First Amend- Student journalists at a Kentucky ment rights of young people everywhere in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, a 4 high school put out an independent ruling that has poisoned the learning environment not just for journalism but for the student newspaper to avoid their teaching of civics and critical thinking. school’s content restrictions. The Supreme Court’s 1988 ruling upset the delicate balance between school au- Yearbooks thority and individual liberty that the Court so artfully struck 19 years earlier in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District. Colorado student journalists are As a result of Hazelwood, it is almost impossible for a censored student to prevail 7 fighting to run yearbook pages in a First Amendment challenge, so long as a school can point to some justification their adviser vetoed. that is in the general vicinity of reasonableness. The Hazelwood mentality now per- Middle school yearbooks are meates public education, so that schools no longer feel they owe students an honest 9 pushing boundaries as students explanation for their decisions, and students no longer believe – even when they are become increasingly tech-savvy. entirely in the right – that they can “fight city hall.” Internet While Hazelwood began as, and still of- ten is thought of as, a case about high school States are cracking down on newspapers, it has spread like an oil slick 12 employers who ask applicants for across all of public education, diminishing social media account information. students’ ability to make their own choices in musical and theatrical performances, gradua- Cyberbullying laws let schools be tion speeches and anything else that a school 15 more involved in regulating can convince a court is “curricular” in nature. off-campus student speech. And Hazelwood’s toxic effects are in no way limited to “children.” As the 6th U.S. Cir- Cover Story cuit Court of Appeals decided in January, even In a June ruling, the Minnesota adult-aged college students in professional 18 Supreme Court lowered speech programs can be held to the “training-wheels” protections for some college students. level of free expression rights if they oppose REGISTER TODAY: school academic policies. College HAZELWOODSYMPOSIUM. Because an entire generation has now The Hazelwood standard is being UNC.EDU grown up entirely in the shadow of Hazelwood, 21 applied to college-level free it is timely to take stock of the Court’s ruling, speech cases. and how it has affected not just the teaching of journalism, but the teaching of critical thinking and good citizenship. More schools are introducing free That is why the Student Press Law Center is partnering with the University of 23 speech zones to regulate student North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the staff of speech on campus. the First Amendment Law Review at the UNC School of Law to organize a two- School-run journalism labs raise day symposium, “One Generation Under Hazelwood: A 25-Year Retrospective on 26 questions about editorial control. Student First Amendment Rights,” to be held Nov. 8-9 at the college’s Chapel Hill, N.C., campus. What happens to student autonomy The symposium brings together leading stakeholders from law, journalism, civics 28 when schools outsource student education and school administration – including students – to assess how Hazelwood media business operations? has impacted young people’s development as participatory citizens. It will result in the production of a special edition of the First Amendment Law Review devoted to student free expression issues. DEPARTMENTS Well-known presenters participating in the discussion will include University of California-Irvine law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky, author-educator Sam Chal- SPLC TipSheet tain, General Counsel Francisco Negron of the National School Boards Association, Using audit records to check up and many more. 11 on school performance. The events are open to the public, and anyone interested in being part of the conver- sation is encouraged to attend by signing up at: www.HazelwoodSymposium.unc.edu.