New Voices in Virginia

• 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 Virginia.

• 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 Virginia 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.

• How a high school journalist bagged a huge scoop—about her superintendent Washingtonian (10-30-20)
• Virginia Education Committee guts New Voices legislation with a major amendment, leaving high school journalists unprotected Student Press Law Center (2-3-20)
• Students like me deserve First Amendment freedom YR Media (8-17-20)
• Public schools in Virginia can censor student journalists any time, for any reason. A proposed law would change that The Washington Post (1-12-20)
• The case of the missing Radford University newspapers is partially cracked. But whodunit isn’t being shared The Washington Post (11-11-19)
• New, restrictive publications policy hits journalists at a Virginia high school who were already being censored Student Press Law Center (10-3-19)
• Frederick School Board tightens oversight of student publications The Winchester Star (8-22-19)
• In some Virginia school districts, principals are the ‘editors’ of student newspapers. Why that’s a problem The Washington Post (4-6-15)
• Va. adviser removed after students criticize school conditions Student Press Law Center (8-16-11) (Other coverage: Madison Eagle.
• High school principal and yearbook editor battling over right to publish teen pregnancy photos. Student Press Law Center (12-18-15) Other coverage: The Washington Post, The WP Wire
• Va. high school censors story about marijuana ‘dabbing’ Student Press Law Center (3-24-15) (Other coverage: The Washington Post 
• Mason High Newspaper Editor Challenges Censorship Policy Falls Church News-Press (8-1-16)
• SPLC intervention spurred the University of Mary Washington to restore student newspaper funding Student Press Law Center (7-24-18)
• Free Speech for Young Journalists Still Hamstrung by School Discretion, Falls-Church News Press (2-20-20)
• Virginia HB 36 As Amended Does Not Meaningfully Advance Protections for Student Journalists Student Press Law Center (2-10-20)
• The right to a free press should belong to students, too Roanoke Times (8-25-19)
• Protecting a bulwark of liberty Richmond Times-Dispatch (1-26-18)
• Proposed “New Voices” bill would provide valuable protections for student journalists in Virginia TJ Today (1-23-19)
• EDITORIAL: End censorship of student media The Cavalier Daily (1-15-19)
• Editorial: Bright lights in the General Assembly Richmond Times-Dispatch, (1-13-19)

• 2019: HB 2382, sponsored by Delegate (and former journalist) Chris Hurst, is introduced but fails a subcommittee vote.
• 2020: HB 36, sponsored by Del. Hurst, is introduced. On January 29, Student Press Freedom Day 2020, more than a dozen students, teachers, administrators and advocates testified before the House Post-Secondary and Higher Education subcommittee in support of HB 36. The subcommittee recommended an amended version of the bill, on 5-3 vote. The full committee subsequently amended the bill to apply only to college students. That version passes both chambers and becomes law. SB 80, sponsored by Senator David Marsden, is also introduced.

Virginia Press Association
Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers
You can see the list of national endorsers at the bottom of this page.