INSIDE EPORT High school R Spring 2010 VOL. XXXI, NO. 2 The Report chronicles how administrative STAFF censorship gutted a high school paper. Page 4 The Student Press Law Center Report (ISSN Julia Chapman, McCormick 0160-3825), published three times each year Foundation Publications Fellow, Cookie cutter policies pose a threat to by the Student Press Law Center, summarizes graduated from the Pennsylvania the freedom of high school media. current cases and controversies involving the State University in May 2009 with Page 8 rights of the student press. The SPLC Report is degrees in political science and researched, written and produced by journalism media studies. She worked at interns and SPLC staff. Penn State’s independent student newspaper, The Student Press Law Center Report, Vol. XXXI, The Daily Collegian, in various roles including No. 2, Spring 2010, is published by the Student page designer, copy editor and opinions editor. Press Law Center Inc., 1101 Wilson Boulevard, Julia also interned for Pennsylvania’s Office of Suite 1100, Arlington, VA 22209-2275, (703) Attorney General, and was a founding member of 807-1904. Copyright © 2009 Student Press Law Penn State’s chapter of Society for News Design. Center. All rights reserved. Yearly subscriptions to the SPLC Report are $15. Contributions are Stefanie Dazio, spring 2010 Ind. superintendent fights school board tax-deductible. part-time journalism intern, is a to protect his son’s right to free speech. Page 10 freshman studying print journal- ism at American University in Access Washington, D.C. She is currently The SPLC takes you through the some- a news assistant for the univer- times-bumpy path from open records sity’s student newspaper, The Eagle, and has request to comprehensive article. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Frank LoMonte interned at the New Jersey weekly newspaper Page 13 CONSULTING ATTORNEY: Mike Hiestand ATTORNEY ADVOCATE: Adam Goldstein the East Coast Star. Stefanie is also a staff College DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR: Beverly Keneagy writer for three New Jersey community papers When editorial cartoons cause printed by Amend Publishing. controversy on campus, the joke can be CORPORATE BOARD OF DIRECTORS on the student newspaper. Javier J. Aldape l E.W. Scripps Company, Laura Dobler, spring 2010 jour- Page 16 Chicago, Ill. nalism intern, graduated from the The decision to print names Caesar Andrews l University of Nevada at Reno S.I. Newhouse School of Public on the police blotter can A.J. Bauer l Freelance Journalist, New York, NY. Communications at Syracuse be a tough one for University with Bachelor of Arts Patrick Carome l WilmerHale, Washington, D.C. college journalists. degrees in photojournalism and Page 19 Jerry Ceppos l University of Nevada at Reno psychology. She was a photography intern at Virginia Edwards l Education Week, Bethesda, The Syracuse Post Standard and worked with Five student editors from Md. the Syracuse University magazine The Student Ireland, Canada, South Angela Filo l Yellow Chair Foundation, Voice as a reporter, photographer and multime- Africa, Singapore and Iraq East Palo Alto, Calif. dia producer. share their experiences Maureen Freeman l Newseum, with learning and practicing Washington, D.C. Katie Maloney, spring 2010 journalism. Page 20 Robert Garcia l National Public Radio, journalism intern, graduated from Washington, D.C. the Pennsylvania State University Internet Michael Godwin l WikiMedia Foundation, in December 2009 with a degree Anonymous speech can give students San Francisco, Calif. in media studies and a minor in the chance to be critical of their schools. Richard Goehler, Esq. l Frost Brown Todd LLC, French. She was a metro editor Page 28 Cincinnati, Ohio and later a designer at Penn State’s independent New and updated Frank LoMonte, Esq. l Student Press Law Cen- student newspaper The Daily Collegian. Katie websites have expand- ter, Arlington, Va. (ex officio) previously served as a broadcast reporting intern ed opportunities for Mark Stodder l Dolan Media, Minneapolis, at KYW Newsradio in Philadelphia, Pa. student media to share Minn. their news content. Nicole Ocran, spring 2010 Page 29 Reginald Stuart l The McClatchy Company, Silver Spring, Md. journalism intern, graduated from SPLC TipSheet Mark Witherspoon l Iowa State University, George Mason University in De- Ames, Iowa cember 2009 with a Bachelor of Laws requiring the disclosure of text- Arts degree in English and a minor book information offer opportunity for Organizations for identification purposes only in electronic journalism. She was investigative campus reporting. Page 33 Become a member & editor-in-chief of the university’s newspaper Broadside, and worked as a Web intern for The Legal analysis Donate online Washington Post Express. Shield laws are being expanded across the U.S. How does this affect student Contributors: Lindsay Boeckl, Adrian Frith, Rick Zalud journalists? www.splc.org and Bill Zars of the Chicago Daily Herald. Page 36 @ 2 SPLC Report l Spring 2010 SPLC NEWS RT @SPLC_org Privacy Protection Act a go-to tool for student editors When they make you the editor of your Media outlets across the spectrum – Get updates from the SPLC on college newspaper, one of the things they in- small and large, conservative and liberal – re- Twitter: Follow us @SPLC_org variably forget to tell you is what to do when acted with equal revulsion to the overwhelm- two truckloads of uniformed police officers ing force marshaled to intimidate students show up asking to search your newsroom. into giving up their rights. “Much as the The Post at University of Wisconsin - Fortunately, Katie Thisdell didn’t have hooligans at JMU deserve to face justice,” the Milwaukee obtained a favorable settle- to be told. The editor of James Madison Washington Post editorialized, “there are ways ment in an open records lawsuit against University’s The Breeze for all of two weeks, to pursue it that do not involve trampling the the university. Post editors filed the suit Katie had her priorities exactly straight: (1) First Amendment and intimidating college after the university submitted heavily dry your hair (if, like Katie, the phone call journalists.” The Star-Exponent in Culpep- redacted documents in response to an comes when you’re in the shower), and (2) per, Va., said the prosecutor’s actions “made a open records request, citing FERPA as call a lawyer. mockery of the First Amendment’s guarantee the reason for removing information. Katie’s poise under duress – a demand of freedom of the press.” to turn over 900 unpublished photos of a The collegiate media was equally vigi- A jury Washington found that Emerald street-party-turned-riot, under threat that ev- lant. “We understand the whole investiga- Ridge High School’s student newspaper, ery camera and computer in the newsroom tion thing,” said South Carolina’s Daily The JagWire, did not violate students’ would be impounded – was one thing that Gamecock, “but they need to understand the privacy rights when it printed informa- kept the April 16 confrontation from turning whole law thing before taking advantage of a tion about their sexual histories in a into a disaster. student staff.”The Daily Princetonian called it series of articles addressing casual sex The other was a timely rescue from “a sobering reminder of the vulnerability of among students. The jury determined volunteer attorneys Seth Berlin and John student publications and the importance of that the articles were newsworthy. O’Keefe of Levine Sullivan Koch & Schulz, fighting unscrupulous police action against LLP, two of the 150 volunteer lawyers who them.” The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in make up the Student Press Law Center’s At- TheHerald at Western Kentucky Univer- Virginia restored a ban on alcohol ad- torney Referral Network. Their legal team sity pinpointed exactly why police intrusion vertisements in Virginia college news- jumped on the case within minutes of the into a newsroom cannot be justified for any- papers, ruling that the advertising regu- raid, and – after giving the Commonwealth’s thing less than a life-and-death emergency: lation did not infringe on the students’ Attorney a crash course on the federal law “If newspapers were subject to the constant First Amendment rights. against newsroom searches – got the wrong- search of police, journalists would essentially fully seized photos returned. become an arm of the law instead of neutral California’s state Senate passed a bill There are times when, disappointingly, observers of fact.” including charter schools in the state’s the professional news media fails to rally That’s why Congress enacted the Pri- comprehensive student free expression behind embattled student journalists and to vacy Protection Act of 1980, specifically in law, ensuring charter school students appreciate what is at stake when their future response to the search of a college newsroom speech rights equal to those in tradi- colleagues are bullied and muzzled by the au- at Stanford University – and why every stu- tional public schools. thorities. dent editor should get to know the PPA, and Not this time. This time, the outcry from remember Katie Thisdale’s example: “Lather. A column expressing opinons on date the friends of the First Amendment was im- Rinse. Rights.” rape led to outcry on American Univer- mediate, unanimous – and loud. -By Frank LoMonte sity’s campus after it was printed in the school’s newspaper, The Eagle. The con- troversy reached the national media and SPLC remembers student journalism advocate led to the paper’s top editors printing apologies and holding a forum to dis- Thomas E. Rolnicki, a longtime friend cuss the issue. of the Student Press Law Center and a mentor to many of today’s scholastic jour- The conflicting rulings in Layshock v. Hermitage and J.S v. Blue Mountain nalism leaders, passed away on Decem- were vacated by the 3rd U.S.