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CALIFORNIA

A federal judge in Illinois rejected an elementary school student's plea in April to have her school print the words "God Bless America" on a yearbook cover she designed.

By refusing to grant a temporary restraining order, U.S.

School administrators all over the country have hacked away at student free expression in the guise of "protecting" the local community from exposure to offensive opinions or controversial topics in school newspapers.

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Whether in the context of student papers seen by members of the wider community, or that of student newspapers printed as supplements to a local paper, administrators are far more likely to censor news that goes beyond the schoolhouse gate.

In light of the widespread censorship and restrictions placed on them by administrators, sometimes student journalists who seek free expression are left with no other choice but to ignore school-sponsored publications altogether and establish independent newspapers.

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The advent of the Internet and widely available desktop publishing software has made the creation of independent student newspapers easier, but the task of distributing and promoting them can still be daunting for students in restrictive school districts.

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Three students at Ashland High School in Massachusetts had difficulty getting their underground publication The Real Deal off the ground, but their perseverance at attempting to distribute the paper paid off.

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Principal Shelley Marcus Cohen clamped down on distribution when editors Jon Rosenblum, Jon Turner and Alan Weene handed out the first issue in December.

WASHINGTON

In some rare instances, an administrator stands by a student's right to free speech, in keeping with the spirit of the First Amendment.

For the past several months, while America has been at war to preserve freedoms abroad, many school-sponsored publications have been losing some of their most fundamental freedoms at home.

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Censorship is alive and well in high schools around the country, with administrators routinely silencing the free expression of student journalists in a variety of ways and for myriad reasons.

OHIO