SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS ARE NOT PUBLIC FORUMS (5-2004)

When I was a senior in high school I was a page editor for 
our school newspaper, “The Shield.” Part of my duties was 
to write headlines for the articles appearing on my page.

In one issue, there was an article about a new student in 
our school. She was a French exchange student, our first. 
So it was newsworthy. 

Since she was born and reared in France, I decided to title 
the article, “Faite en France,” which means “made in 
France.” In retrospect, it might not have been the best 
headline, but I thought it was somewhat clever at the time.

Still, the faculty sponsor of the school newspaper, who 
also happened to be the French teacher, censored it. She 
said it was clever and appropriate to the situation, but it 
was mildly suggestive, so she nixed it.

That was my first taste of journalistic censorship, and I 
wasn’t at all happy about it. But she was the advisor and 
there wasn’t much I could do about it but acquiesce. First 
amendment rights never entered the discussion.

Do students who write for their school newspapers enjoy the 
same freedom of the press and freedom of speech as regular 
journalists enjoy? Should they?

Those questions have been asked recently in Columbus, where 
a controversy surrounding an editorial written for the 
school newspaper by a Columbus East student endorsing three 
school board candidates has been brewing. Some of the 
candidates who were not endorsed have called for the 
edition to be pulled. They also want stricter supervision 
and faculty control over what is published in the future.

If there has been one recurring theme in my columns, it has 
been a solid support for the freedoms that the First 
Amendment guarantees us as citizens of the United States. 
The freedom of speech, of worship, and of the press must 
never be compromised.

And that is why it may seem ironic that I find myself in 
disagreement with those who claim that school newspapers 
must enjoy the same freedom of the press as regular 
newspapers. Principals and faculty advisors do have the 
right to censor school newspapers, even student opinion 
columns. 

School newspapers are not public forums; they are 
extensions of the curriculum. And as with other parts of 
the school curriculum, a student newspaper that is funded 
by the school and is published under the auspices of the 
school system must comply with standards set by the school 
board.

That certainly doesn’t mean that students must give up 
their free speech rights. The Supreme Court, in a landmark 
1969 ruling (Tinker vs. Des Moines), said that students had 
a right to wear black arm bands in protest of the Vietnam 
War. The ruling said that children do not give up their 
constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.

But that doesn’t mean that a school-sponsored newspaper has 
to publish potentially inflammatory editorials if the 
faculty advisor or principal believes that doing so would 
not be in the school’s best interests. A 1988 Supreme Court 
ruling affirmed that, as long as there is a faculty advisor 
and if the school’s name is in the newspaper as the 
authority over its publication, then school personnel may 
censor it to comply with the school’s basic mission.

But even though I may partially agree with those school 
board candidates who say the newspaper should be under 
tighter faculty control, I must also say that they have not 
acted with the decorum that should be expected of them. 
Their gripes seem a bit juvenile, and it shows they may be 
too thin skinned to run for public office.

And just because faculty advisors may legally censor the 
writings of student journalists, doesn’t mean they should 
do so simply because those writings may be controversial. 
If writing and editing a school newspaper is supposed to be 
a learning activity, what better way to teach students 
about our First Amendment freedoms?