Current Status: West Virginia has a New Voices law, which protects student journalists from censorship and advisers from retaliation for refusing to infringe on their students’ press rights. Want to further strengthen student press freedom in West Virginia? Join the movement by contacting the SPLC’s Advocacy and Organizing Team at newvoices@splc.org.
Know Your Rights
Who is protected from censorship?
All school-sponsored publications are free from censorship at West Virginia’s public schools, public colleges and public universities. This includes newspapers, yearbooks, literary magazines, podcasts, broadcast, and more.
Student media advisers are protected from professional consequences for refusing to censor student media or override their students’ publication decisions.
What work can be censored?
Your work can only be restricted if it:
- is libelous or slanderous;
- constitutes an actionable invasion of privacy;
- is obscene, vulgar, pornographic, or of sensual or illicit sexual content;
- violates federal or state law; or
- expressly incites students to engage in the commission of an unlawful act or acts, or violate a lawful school policy, or is likely to cause the material and substantial disruption of the operation of the school.
What happens if I’m being censored?
Try to get any communication from your school in writing, or write down your own memory of events as they happen.
School officials must tell students in advance their reason for censoring student media expression and give them a chance to appeal the school’s decision. You should be told before your media is restricted what is unprotected, and given a chance to appeal. Call the Student Press Law Center immediately.
Join the Movement
- Know your press freedom rights and make sure others do as well. Spread the word about West Virginia’s New Voices laws on social media and in your newsroom.
- West Virginia law requires your school board to have a written student publications policy. Locate a copy of this policy. (You can use this toolkit to help you find it and some examples of red flags to look out for.) If the policy seems like it endorses censorship or doesn’t match the New Voices law, let SPLC know!
- Help your colleagues better understand student press freedom by inviting an SPLC expert to join you: SPLC In The Classroom.
- Advocate for even more student press freedom. Is the law not good enough? Talk with SPLC’s New Voices Advocacy and Organizing Team (newvoices@splc.org) about gaps you see in the law and how we can work to make it stronger.
Recent News
- Bricker reflects on one year of New Voices in West Virginia (7/16/2024) - Advocate Morgan Bricker discusses the progress and challenges of the first year of New Voices in West Virginia, and looks to the work ahead.
- Comments to Webster County (WV) School Board on Student Media Policy, December 2023 (12/11/2023) - Following West Virginia’s passage of a New Voices law earlier this year, the Student Press Law Center submitted comments on a proposed student media policy for Webster County Schools in Webster Springs, West Virginia.
- Comments to Mingo County (WV) School Board on Student Media Policy, December 2023 (12/4/2023) - Following West Virginia’s passage of a New Voices law earlier this year, the Student Press Law Center submitted comments on a proposed student media policy for Mingo County Schools in Williamson, West Virginia.
- How We Won West Virginia: Kellen Hoard Talks New Voices Advocacy and Advice (4/28/2023) - Student advocate Kellen Hoard talks about strategies that worked when trying to pass a state law protecting student journalists.
- West Virginia Protects Student Press Freedom (3/24/2023) - West Virginia adopted the Student Journalist Press Freedom Protection Act, becoming the 17th New Voices state!