News

CALIFORNIA -- Allowing student free speech may have come at a high price for the Los Angeles Unified School District, after a superior court jury last week handed down a decision that -- if left unchallenged -- could set a dangerous precedent for cases involving student journalists.

MONTANA -- The Great Falls school board decided Monday to defy a judge's order and expel a high school student who had posted photographs of female classmates on his personal Web site.

The board's unanimous decision instructed Great Falls High senior Kenny Volk to transfer to C.M.

VIRGINIA -- Tired of an overbearing principal's prior review policy and repeated censorship of issues like sex education and free speech in their school newspaper, students at Middlesex High School in Saluda have taken their plight to the public to change the policy.

When two successive issues of The Big Blue Review were censored last month, the newspaper staff wrote a letter to the editor of the Southside Sentinel calling for public support to change the school publications policy.

ARKANSAS -- Strict guidelines imposed on an award-winning student newspaper are threatening its independence in a state with a law protecting the rights of student journalists.

Editor Holly Ballard said the new guidelines were triggered by the paper's coverage of school board meetings and articles critical of Superintendent Vickie Logan.

The censorship escalated when a feature writer of The Prospective decided to run a series on discrimination at Bryant High School.

The first two articles on racial and religious discrimination ran without a problem, Ballard said, but the third article caused some friction.

The article addressed sexual discrimination at Bryant High School and involved the use of confidential questionnaires frequently used by Prospective reporters to "ensure accuracy of quotes" and cut down on the amount of classtime used for an interview.

The author handed out the questionnaire to a select group of students and promised anonymity.

Complaints started pouring into the principal's office from students and parents alike whom "felt the questionnaires implied they were homosexual and that they were under attack by the journalism staff," Ballard said.

Principal Danny Spadoni confiscated the questionnaires from the newspaper office unbeknownst to the adviser and prohibited the paper from running the final article in the series, Ballard said.

"A week or two later [Spadoni] presented Ms. Sorrows with eight points and made her sign a document that said if she didn't abide by these, her job could be in jeopardy," Ballard said.

"Our journalism teacher has been up to her head with criticism," Ballard said of Sorrows.

MICHIGAN -- The appearance of a provocative article about religion in the student newspaper at Wayne State University late last month has provoked calls of insensitivity.

The Feb.

LOUISIANA -- A high school principal forced students to remove the names of teen mothers from an article in the school newspaper, even after they consented to have their names used.

Before a February issue of the Fontainebleau High School Gazette went to press, journalism adviser Christa Allan turned over a copy for principal Randy Morgan to review, as has been the school policy since the paper was established in 1995.

Fearing repercussions from parents and community members for including the names of teen mothers in a front-page article, Morgan consulted the St.

INDIANA -- Many reporters cover the actions of criminals and wrongdoers, but few expect to be punished along with them.

But when a high school journalist photographed 25 of his peers engaging in a senior prank during the school day, he received the same suspension they did and had the roll of film documenting his work confiscated.

In what Plainfield High School principal William Wakefield called a planned prank, 25 fully clothed seniors jumped into the darkened school swimming pool at around 11:30 a.m.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallaudet University students hoping to see their 2000-01 yearbook have found their efforts obscured by red tape.

PENNSYLVANIA -- Student journalists at Temple University are the latest victims in a rash of newspaper thefts that hit seven college newspapers in a seven-day period ending last week.

About 9,000 copies of the Temple News were swiped from newsstands Feb.

ARIZONA -- A dissenting opinion has no place in the editorial section of a newspaper. At least that is the way students and administrators at Central High School reacted to a controversial commentary.

Principal Nancy Kloss confiscated The Central Voice's Feb.