In four states, student journalists outnumber journalists from professional outlets assigned to the statehouse full-time, where they ensure citizens have access to information about how the state spends their tax dollars and decisions on education, criminal justice and safety regulations.
Despite a promise of increased transparency in police activities, state public records laws may shield the footage from the public. Footage likely won’t be released if it is part of an ongoing investigation or if certain details, such as the identities of victims in sensitive situations, cannot be redacted.
A University of Missouri-St. Louis student who uses an online platform to live-stream protests in Ferguson was hospitalized last week after five or six people threw him out of a church, where protesters had gathered to strategize, and beat him.
Two student reporters from Lindenwood University say they were detained and intimidated by about 15 St. Louis Metropolitan police officers for about an hour on Oct. 27 after they recorded video of police cars from a public sidewalk.
The University of Missouri System does not have to release course syllabi because they are protected by copyright laws, a state appellate court ruled last week — a decision the National Council on Teacher Quality plans to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
After their adviser and school administrators met to weigh legal and safety concerns — and set rules — the students from Ladue Horton Watkins High School worked alongside national news outlets as they covered Michael Brown’s funeral in St. Louis.
The University of Missouri-St. Louis is stepping in to save its student newspaper after a student budget committee opted to completely slash the publication’s funding subsidy, staffers say.
Student journalists at Glendale High School are raising concerns that the administration’s increased involvement in their publication is leading them down a path to censorship.
A newspaper rack at Northwest Missouri State University was stolen near the student paper’s newsroom last weekend, leaving student reporters and the adviser wondering whether the theft was in response to a front-page story about an increase in arrests in the city of Maryville for underage alcohol possession.
Earlier this month, police demanded student journalists at Northwest Missouri State turn over documents detailing a journalism professor’s Facebook post that contained a joking reference to shooting people on campus.