WASHINGTON
— Student press advocates resubmitted a bill in the state Senate today
that would add Washington to the list of states that protect public high school
and college journalists from censorship.
Sen. Joe McDermott (D-Seattle) today
submitted
SB 6449, a student free-press bill almost identical to a proposal that
passed the state House of Representatives in March 2007 but that failed to gain
a vote on the Senate floor before the 2007 session expired. McDermott was joined
by four co-sponsors, including Sen. Adam Kline (D-Seattle), chairman of the
Judiciary Committee.
Like last year’s proposal, sponsored
by Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Des Moines), the Senate bill makes student editors
responsible for all content in school-sponsored media at public high schools and
colleges, even if the student outlets are funded by the school or operate as
part of a class. It forbids colleges from instituting mandatory prior review of
a student publication. At the high school level, it allows administrators to
review student media but to censor material only if it is obscene as to minors,
libelous, "constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy" or incites students
to break laws, violate school regulations or cause a material and substantial
disruption of the school.
The bill would forbid administrators at both
high schools and colleges from firing, transferring or otherwise disciplining
media advisers "for refusing to suppress the protected free expression rights of
student journalists." It also makes clear that schools and school officials
cannot be sued or held responsible for material that runs in a student
publication "unless school officials or the governing board have interfered with
or altered the content of the student expression."
There are few substantive changes between
this year's version and last year's. For example, this year's version clarifies
that courts may award only "reasonable" attorney's fees to students who
successfully sue their districts for violating the free-expression law. Brian
Schraum, who helped lead efforts to get the bill passed while he was in high
school and college, said that change was intended to blunt criticisms that the
original bill might lead to costly judgments against school districts.
"I think the bill isn't fundamentally any
different than it was last year," Schraum said.
McDermott, who served in the state House for
seven years before being appointed to the Senate in October, said he first
became interested in sponsoring the Senate version of the bill after meeting
with editors of the Vashon Island High School
Riptide. School
administrators forced the paper to pull an article detailing concerns about a
coach, and Principal Susan Hanson wrote in a letter to student editors that the
student paper was not "an appropriate vehicle for airing concerns, complaints
and criticisms of District staff."
"That's when I knew I was eager to prime
sponsor the bill in the Senate," McDermott said.
In the past year, proponents have worked to
organize support for the bill, forming the Washington Coalition for Responsible
Student Expression. The 16-member coalition includes educators' groups such as
the Journalism Education Association, media groups such as the Washington
Newspaper Publishers Association and civil liberties organizations, including
the Student Press Law Center.
Backers also have worked to allay the concerns
expressed by the bill’s skeptics. Kathy Schrier, president of the
Washington Journalism Education Association, said the group has been trying to
convince principals, especially, that the bill "isn’t as threatening" as
they might have first believed. In particular, the bill’s proponents have
tried to dispel the belief that the bill would increase the number of lawsuits
against schools, which Schrier said was one of the biggest concerns last
year.
"The facts prove that just to be a fallacy,"
Schrier said, citing the experiences of the seven states that have passed
similar legislation – including neighboring Oregon, where an
anti-censorship law passed in July 2007.
Schrier said she thinks discussions with
individual principals and with the Association of Washington School Principals
— which opposed the bill last year — are having an effect. She
pointed to increased collaboration between the Washington JEA and the principals
group on sessions at conferences, as well as the fact that the principals group,
in its
fall magazine, ran columns supporting student editorial control over
student media by both the principal and the media adviser at Mountlake Terrace
High School.
Jocelyn McCabe, communications director for the
principals group, said she also thought the association's members and the bill's
proponents have gained a better understanding of each other's positions in the
last year. But she said the association remains concerned at the prospect of
"the removal of the principal in the advisory process."
Principals offer guidance and serve as the
equivalent of the editors whom journalists would encounter in the professional
world, McCabe said. "The student newspaper in a high school setting is a
teaching tool. ... We believe that there needs to be some oversight."
And McCabe noted concerns among administrators
that the bill's protections for media advisers would make those teachers
essentially "untouchable." She said the association would review the new bill
and likely decide within a week or two whether to take an official position on
it.
The bill's backers are confident that it will gain
approval in the House again but acknowledge that prospects in the Senate are
uncertain. Last year, the bill faced strong opposition from the principals group
and the Washington Association of School Administrators, which represents
superintendents. The bill gained the Senate Judiciary Committee's approval only
after the bill's sponsors agreed to an amendment that removed the protections
for high school journalists, leaving only the college-level protections.
McDermott, who now serves on the Senate Judiciary
Committee, said he hopes to use the connections he made on the House Education
Committee to build support for this year's bill.
Schraum, who graduation from Washington State
University in December, said he hopes to see his years of work come to
fruition.
Said Schraum, "We'll keep our fingers crossed and see where
things go."
By Michael Beder, SPLC staff writer
