News

FLORIDA -- In a ruling that the Florida Department of Education said “turns the purpose of state government on its ear,” a state court declared that the department must comply with an open-records request by a commercial newspaper for the Social Security numbers of every teacher in the state.

WASHINGTON -- Student journalists at an award-winning high school newspaper have met with school district administrators and distributed 200 fliers to students and parents in an effort to preserve their newspaper program.

OHIO -- School districts failed to make the grade in an Ohio Coalition for Open Government public records audit, releasing records the same day or the next less than 30 percent of the time -- the lowest rate of any public body included in the statewide audit.In the study, more than 90 auditors from various media outlets and universities posed as regular citizens to get records from county governments, school districts and police departments.

NEW YORK -- Two students at a public university in Brockport have filed a lawsuit against their school in hopes of eliminating its speech code -- a policy they claim is unconstitutional and chilling to students who wish to express themselves on campus.The students, Patricia Simpson and Robert Wojick, argue that by having a speech code that forbids certain "offensive" expression on campus, administrators are suppressing the views of students by not permitting them to speak out on controversial subjects.

WASHINGTON -- A commercial newspaper is suing the University of Washington over access to the notes of interviews with 18 student athletes conducted as part of an internal investigation into a former team doctor.The public university conducted an investigation into alleged overmedication of its softball team by coaches and the team’s doctor.

VIRGINIA -- Students who want to distribute nonschool-sponsored literature in Montgomery County public schools now must follow guidelines that include prior review by the school principal and an appeals process that gives school board members final say.On June 2 the school board approved the policy after three Blacksburg High School students attempted to distribute an editorial that was rejected from the school’s student newspaper, the Ink Wave. The students agreed to stop distributing the editorial until the district could form a policy.“The policy merely states what the law is, and the purpose of the policy was to give principals some guidance on what the law is,” said W.

INDIANA -- A fraternity at Purdue University paid about $350 in restitution to a student newspaper after university officials found the group responsible for the theft of 4,000 newspapers.Pat Kuhnle, publisher and general manager of The Exponent, said the university found the fraternity, Theta Xi, responsible for the theft of several other newspapers as well, including USA Today and The Wall Street Journal. A student disciplinary board ordered the fraternity to pay the printing costs of the student newspaper but not the other papers that were taken. Fraternity officials did not respond to requests for comment.Last October, newspaper staff members received several complaints that newspapers had been stolen from delivery sites across campus.

KANSAS -- Although her main goal is to keep student publications moving forward at Kansas State University, Linda Puntney is concerned there are not enough safeguards in place to guarantee the First Amendment rights of students and advisers at the public university.The 14-year veteran of the university community has been named interim adviser of the Kansas State Collegian, a student newspaper at the university, and acting director of Student Publications Inc., the organization that oversees the finances of the newspaper and other student media.Her promotion is a result of the removal of former adviser Ron Johnson, who believes school administrators fired him because of content that appeared in the newspaper. After receiving about 10 applications for the position, the school decided to call off its search for a new adviser after the publication's board of directors said they would not support Johnson's replacement.

MASSACHUSETTS -- The lawyer for a recent Salem High School graduate has told school board members that he is prepared to sue the school district if they do not review the conduct of the superintendent involved in suspending his client, who previously had opposed a prior review policy for the student newspaper.

CALIFORNIA -- Administrators at a University of California at San Diego television station have suspended student programming until next fall after a student was prohibited from showing footage of the beheading of an American civilian in Iraq during his political talk show.Student talk show host Daniel Watts already showed the video of Nicholas Berg's murder once on Warren College Television without the knowledge of administrators.