ALABAMA -- Student and professional journalists have joined together to sue the Auburn University Board of Trustees because of what they believe are violations of the state's open-meetings law.
Six professional newspapers, along with the Alabama Press Association and Auburn's student newspaper, The Auburn Plainsman, filed a lawsuit Feb.
For more than 25 years, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), or "Buckley Amendment," has protected the privacy of student education records.[1] Recently, however, some school districts have given the Act a curious interpretation.
The Constitution has spoken, the courts have spoken -- even the TV series "Boston Public" has spoken.
NEW YORK -- The staff of the Francis Lewis High School student newspaper thought the bathrooms at their school stunk.
Students were upset by restrictive policies on student bathroom use, such as the "10-minute rule," which called for bathrooms to be locked the first and last 10 minutes of class and a ban on more than two bathrooms -- one for each sex -- being open at the same time.
The World Wide Web has gained a great deal of popularity because of its easy accessibility to a wide range of topics and information: music, clothes, news, jobs and health.
When two states introduced student freedom-of-expression bills, student press supporters were ready for a First Amendment fight.
Following the enactment of the Children's Internet Protection Act, Consumer Reports magazine tested the effectiveness of six Internet filtering products plus America Online's parental control function.
MICHIGAN -- A high school newspaper adviser was reprimanded after a student's column criticizing the observance of Black History Month sparked debate among local students and parents.
The trouble started in March after an article critical of Black History Month was published in the February edition of Plymouth Salem High School's P-CEP Perspective. The article, written by senior Chris MacKinder, questioned the need to celebrate Black History Month, claiming that by celebrating the month "race once again becomes a popular topic of discussion." He added that celebrating Black History Month was unfair because other groups and races were not celebrated.
MacKinder's column caused an uproar, mainly in the African-American community, which requested a meeting with school administrators and demanded that MacKinder be expelled and newspaper adviser Mary Lou Nagy be fired.
Instead, administrators reprimanded Nagy by relieving her of her three classes and placing her in an administrative position for eight days.
This summer, the Student Press Law Center will launch the First Amendment Fund to protect the rights of student journalists.
"Anyone who works with students recognizes that they frequently have to fight for their right to cover important issues," says Mary Arnold Hemlinger, youth journalism and diversity consultant for the Newspaper Association of American Foundation and chair of the SPLC's board of directors.