News

Distribution rights under examination

The U.S. Supreme Court this spring declined to hear two cases involving an individual's right to distribute literature on school grounds while students in Florida and Ohio filed lawsuits over the same issue.

In April, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case of a New Jersey kindergartner who attempted to pass out pencils that bore the message 'Jesus [loves] the Little Children' during a class Easter party in 1998 and then candy canes with a religious message attached at another time.

Restraining student media

Student journalists across the country complained of administrative censorship this spring, from students being punished for protesting prior review of their student newspaper to school officials confiscating a publication that published editorials critical of the school.

Thirty years later, SPLC still working to help

This fall, the Student Press Law Center will celebrate its 30th anniversary. For those not familiar with the SPLC's origins, the story of how an organization devoted to defending the student media and educating young journalists about their free-press and freedom-of-information rights came into existence and continues to serve after three decades is an interesting one.

The beginning of the SPLC is most directly attributed to a group formed in 1973 to examine the state of youth media.