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.
The editor of a student newspaper at Mesa State College sued the college’s Board of Trustees in March, claiming the board failed to hold open meetings — as required by state law — during its controversial search for a new college president.
While journalists at six student newspapers expressed frustration over unresolved and unsolved cases of newspaper theft, at least one newspaper theft incident ended in punishment this spring for the student found responsible for the theft.
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.
After more than a year, an ongoing legal battle and the passage of a new law, a student newspaper at the University of Texas at Austin finally got what it asked for in an open-records request — or at least some of it.
A student at the University of Northern Colorado is challenging the state’s criminal libel statute, saying it is unconstitutional after he was almost charged with the crime for comments he published in his satirical online publication.
The Dupo High School senior's First Amendment rights to religious expression and freedom of the press had collided with the school's concerns over the First Amendment's establishment clause, which prohibits schools from promoting religion.
If passed, the bill will amend the Louisiana Public Records Act to allow minors like Baker access to public records, something the current law prohibits. Barker, who helped convince a state legislator to file the bill, wants the bill to pass so that he can successfully file an open-records request as a minor, just to sweeten the icing on his birthday cake.
Two libel lawsuits involving student newspapers in Indiana and Minnesota were filed in the past few months, while a court dismissed a libel suit filed against a student paper in Massachusetts.
The editorials drew the ire of Principal Ann Papagiotas, who ordered the newspaper’s publication date delayed until students changed the editorials to show the school in a more positive light. After the paper was finally published, adviser Pamela Hebert resigned from her advising duties because she was afraid of losing her teaching job.