News

A growing number of computer-savvy students say teachers and administrators hamper educational benefits of Internet use through inadequate instruction, lack of access to computers and restrictive policies such as filtering software, according to a study released in August by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

Digital Disconnect , the term coined by the non-profit initiative of the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, is the "substantial disconnect" between how students use the Internet for homework and how they use it during the school day under teacher direction.

Nearly 2,000 middle and high school students drawn from 36 different public schools participated in Pew-sponsored focus groups.

The Society of Professional Journalists honored William Lawbaugh, newspaper and yearbook adviser at Mount St.

Claiming the campus student newspaper has created an unfair market for competition, the Tiger Weekly, an independent newspaper at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, has sued its school-sponsored counterpart, The Reveille.

Tiger Weekly publisher Wayne Lewis said The Reveille is supposed to be used as a learning tool for the journalism program, not as a tool to thwart competition.

The Butte County District Attorney decided Sept. 17 not to pursue charges against a Chico State University student journalist for obstruction of a police officer.

The new DeKalb County School System Superintendent might have attempted to hush criticism by ordering the confiscation of additional copies of a high school newspaper that included disparaging remarks on his record.

What Superintendent Johnny Brown?s alleged actions did instead was spark an uproar among some students, parents and teachers at Chamblee Charter High School and debate in the editorial pages of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The furor followed articles written in the Blue and Gold student newspaper by students Alan Simpson and J.C.

A four-day dispute over the use of questionable language in a safe-sex column ended Sept. 19 when administrators conceded censorship would disrupt the learning environment of journalism students.

Seminole Community College administrators agreed to continue covering the printing costs for the student newspaper after delaying publication of its first edition for four days.

Attorneys for the Student Press Law Center and other First Amendment advocates will be defending college free press rights before a panel of federal judges, the U.S.

NEW JERSEY -- Rutgers Magazine, an official publication of Rutgers University, violated the First Amendment rights of an alumni group when it refused to print an advertisement, a state appeals court ruled Aug.

NEBRASKA -- An English teacher at Seward High School is suing the school district and superintendent for violating his First Amendment rights after they reprimanded him and threatened him with dismissal for criticizing the school.

HAWAII -- In the wake of the national controversy over the phrase "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, a McKinley High School student is challenging the constitutionality of the "love for God" portion of his school's honor code.

On July 16, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of 15-year-old James Ornellas seeking a court order to mandate that school officials remove either the "love for God" phrase or the entire code from school property.

The honor code reads in part: "As a student of McKinley, I stand for love of God and all Mankind."

"It's saying that to be honorable, I need to believe in God," Ornellas said.