Current Status: The legislature is in session, and advocates are seeking a New Voices bill sponsor. Join the movement by contacting the SPLC’s Advocacy and Organizing Team at newvoices@splc.org.
Join the Movement
- Contact your state legislators to let them know why this legislation is important to you. Find out who your legislators are here. Not sure what to say? Check out our phone script and letter-writing tips here.
- Talk with SPLC’s New Voices Advocacy and Organizing Team (newvoices@splc.org) about ways to bring New Voices to Tennessee.
Other Ways to Get Involved
- Refine your thoughts with talking points, find answers to frequently asked questions, or find other resources here.
- Locate a copy of your school district’s student media or student expression policy. This toolkit can tell you everything you need to know about your policy and what you can do with it. Some student media policies offer legal protection equal to or even exceeding New Voices protections. If that’s the case, spread the word! (And let SPLC know, too.)
- Help your colleagues better understand student press freedom by inviting an SPLC expert to join you: SPLC In The Classroom.
- Spread the word about New Voices. Enlist all your friends in Tennessee to raise their voices in support of this measure, which ensures the basic First Amendment rights of student journalists and protects their advisers from retaliation.
Why Tennessee needs New Voices
- OPINION: Student journalism pops the campus bubble. Here’s how you can protect it. The Tennessean. (2-23-23)
- Principal censors newspaper over articles on birth control, tattoos Student Press Law Center (11-29-05)
- Tenn. school censors student’s atheism editorial, says it would be distracting Student Press Law Center (2-24-12)
- Tenn. adviser removed after yearbook publishes profile of gay student Student Press Law Center (5-29-12)
- Tenn. student resigns from college newspaper, claims censorship in suspension from social media use Student Press Law Center (11-6-14)
- Tennessee school board vows “investigation” of yearbook over gay student’s profile story Student Press Law Center (5-10-12)
- SPLC urges Tennessee to protect student media from investigation Student Press Law Center (8-12-21)
- After being punished with a funding cut after an investigative story runs in Memphis, pressure from SPLC helps get money restored Student Press Law Center (11-18-15)
- Rediscovering my voice: How high school censorship shaped my journalism experience FIRE (6-27-19)
- Kentucky Student Editors, Tennessee Adviser Recognized for Journalistic Courage Student Press Law Center (9-18-12)
History of New Voices in Tennessee
- 2021: SB 1300 was introduced by Senator Jeff Yarbro on Feb. 11, 2021. The bill applied only to higher education, and did not receive a committee hearing.
Endorsements
You can see the list of national endorsers at the bottom of this page.