Resolution HJ 196 honors the students for their months-long campaign that fended off their school district’s attempt to curtail their independence and eventually secured greater protections in a new district-wide policy.
HB 2918, a New Voices bill aimed at curbing arbitrary censorship of the state’s student journalists, was amended in March to include language that likely would lead to the opposite result. The amended bill awaits a full vote on the House floor, but advocates now hope it never receives one.
As Maryland celebrates 10 years of protecting student journalists from arbitrary censorship, a Student Press Law Center analysis found that most of the state’s school districts have student media policies that comply with its New Voices law.
Myesha Phukan is an advocacy intern for the Student Press Law Center and a co-winner of the 2024 Courage in Student Journalism Award. If someone asked me what New Voices was three years ago, I would have looked at them with a blank expression. Now, if the same person asked me that same question today,… Continue reading Why I joined SPLC: An intern’s perspective on defending the student press
Student journalists, educators and other advocates of student journalism, including an attorney from the Student Press Law Center, testified Feb. 11 at a hearing of Missouri’s House Committee on Elementary and Secondary Education in support of HB 2918.
Utah’s House Education Committee has tabled the state’s New Voices bill for now, but committee members spoke favorably about student press protections in a Jan. 27 hearing. They also demonstrated willingness to work on the bill, one of the first New Voices introductions in Utah.
Mountain View High School student journalist Myesha Phukan shares her censorship story and why New Voices legislation matters.
