Editors at a Pasadena-area high school say their principal ordered them to water down coverage of a popular teacher's removal, claiming it would invade the teacher's privacy. A local ACLU lawyer is asking the district to investigate whether the school censored not only the journalists, but also students who planned to protest the teacher's firing but were pressured to cancel the demonstration.
Tag: censorship
School censorship elevates Mich. students' message to the national stage
Blocked by school censors from sharing a thoughtful discussion of mental-health issues in the pages of the Community High School student newspaper, two Ann Arbor, Mich., teens were forced instead to settle for The New York Times and NPR's "Weekend Edition."
Proving once again that censorship is gasoline on the flame of a powerful idea, journalists Madeline Halpert and Eva Rosenfeld talked with NPR's Scott Simon today about how they were prevented from publishing a column examining the effects of depression on teens and why it's so hard for them to talk about.
Halpert was one of several students who agreed, with written parental permission, to be named in a story confronting the stigma surrounding mental illness that can, with tragic consequences, deter people struggling with depression from seeking professional help.
Schools and administrators among those “honored” by Jefferson Muzzle awards
The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression is out with its 2014 Jefferson Muzzles, the annual award it presents to those that "forgot or disregarded Mr. Jefferson's admonition that freedom of speech 'cannot be limited without being lost.'" As usual, quite a few schools and administrators were recognized with awards. Among the honorees:
- The University of Kansas board of regents: After a journalism professor tweeted about the National Rifle Association following the September 2013 Naval Yard shooting, he was placed on administrative leave by the university.
Spotlight shines on colleges' regulation of student-athletes social media posts
In a new law journal article, Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center, makes a case for why universities shouldn’t regulate student-athletes’ social media accounts and online speech.“What makes social media novel and empowering — that it is an immediate, unfiltered way to ‘speak’ with thousands of people — is also what makes it frightening to campus regulators,” LoMonte writes.
At a public institution, the First Amendment protects students' ability to express themselves free from government sanction, and the Due Process Clause protects against the removal of public benefits in an arbitrary way or without adequate notice.
Kansas Regents provoke academic freedom firestorm with policy forbidding “improper” online speech
If members of the Kansas Board of Regents have a low tolerance for unkind online speech, they'd best keep their browsers closed.
First Amendment groups ask federal appeals court to overturn Hazelwood-based removal of Hawaii college student
Can a student be kicked out of a degree program at a public university because those in charge of his department think his ideas are outside the mainstream of his intended profession?That's the issue presented by a just-filed case before the Ninth U.S.
“Boobies” case could go before the Supreme Court
The Easton Area School District board in Pennsylvania decided on Tuesday to try take its "boobies" case to the U.S.
Why there’s not a student newspaper at Constitution High School anymore
"Have you met the girl from Constitution High School whose student newspaper was censored?"This was my introduction to Madeline Clapier, a senior at the school who was attending the Constitution Day celebrations Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
Tinker Tour takes off on national Constitution Day
The Constitution lets people speak up and say things that are unpopular, Mary Beth Tinker told a crowd of students and teachers gathered in the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday.
Bad taste, bad law: In “Hot for Teacher” case, federal court flunks First Amendment 101
By any standard, Joseph Corlett displayed questionable taste in a series of journal entries he submitted for a college writing assignment.Because of that poor judgment, Corlett is receiving little public sympathy after his Michigan college suspended him for making lustful comments about his instructor in a writing assignment.On July 23, a federal district judge found no First Amendment violation in Oakland University's decision to suspend Corlett on a charge of harassment.There is no disputing that Corlett's journal entries -- comparing his English professor to "Gilligan's Island" sex-symbol Ginger and generally "hubba-hubba-ing" over her appearance -- were unbecoming to a married 57-year-old businessman. But the federal court's ruling takes dangerous liberties with the law of the First Amendment.