We guided students at the University of Florida before they published reporting on the connection between chemicals and Parkinson’s disease.
When student journalists take on serious investigative work — telling stories that would otherwise go untold — the reporting itself is only part of the challenge.
When producing a complex story or one that carries elevated legal risk, students often ask the Student Press Law Center to review their work before it’s published. This confidential pre-publication vetting is a preventive measure that reduces the chance of a legal crisis occurring down the line.
In the 2025-2026 school year, Student Press Law Center attorneys vetted 73 stories reported by student journalists before publication.
For eight University of Florida students, who spent 16 weeks reporting a seven-part series of articles on the connection between chemical exposure and Parkinson’s disease, this pre-publication support was critical.
Student journalists and educators at UF have turned to the Student Press Law Center for guidance for many years, and this time was no exception.
The series “Poisoned Pathways” involved nearly 100 interviews with patients living with Parkinson’s, their caregivers and loved ones, physicians, researchers, advocates and more. The patients featured in the series all shared a similar concern: that their Parkinson’s is linked to various chemical exposures, from farm work to military service to groundskeeping work at Disney. This meant taking on powerful, often litigious, institutions and interests.
To prepare students and their advisers to publish with confidence, the Student Press Law Center:
- Conducted in-depth reviews of articles through an objective, third-party point of view. Due to the significant regional reach of the companies named in the series, many lawyers within the university’s network had ties to those companies. The Student Press Law Center’s input avoided concerns about any potential conflicts of interest and allowed the series to be published swiftly.
- Advised students on precise language use, recommending critical adjustments to three articles that would further protect the reporter from potential liability while maintaining the integrity of the story.
- Collaborated with the student journalists and their advisers to ensure all sourcing was airtight.
After the Student Press Law Center’s guidance was incorporated, “Poisoned Pathways” was published in April 2026 through WUFT, the public media station housed within the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications.
Because of the depth of the students’ investigative reporting, Florida residents now have access to vital public health information that WUFT would not otherwise have been confident publishing.
The students’ reporting has now reached approximately one million readers and listeners across the state of Florida and beyond. “Poisoned Pathways” was republished by the Pulitzer Center, WUSF in Tampa, WLRN in Miami, and the Tampa Bay Times.
These were complex stories, discussing the serious impact of huge international chemical companies and major Florida-based corporations. I truly don’t know what I would have done without the Student Press Law Center’s guidance, because I would not have felt comfortable publishing these stories without their legal review. The extra layer of protection and risk management the Student Press Law Center provided helped us all sleep better at night.
—Cynthia Barnett
Director of Climate and Environment Reporting Initiatives, University of Florida