Tag: Winter 2001-02

WASHINGTON D.C. ' U.S. Sen. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., introduced the School Website Protection Act in August, aiming to imprison hackers who disrupt school computers.

The legislation, S 1252, implicates anyone who 'knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such contact, intentionally affects or impairs without authorization a computer of an elementary school or secondary school or institution of higher education.'

The bill, however, is failing to garner much support on Capitol Hill due in part to the concerns of student-rights advocates and Internet experts who find its potentially expansive scope troubling.

MISSOURI ' A lawsuit filed against the University of Missouri by Kansas City television station WDAF/Fox 4 was dropped in September.

The lawsuit claimed the university was in violation of the state's sunshine law when it refused to disclose information from campus disciplinary proceedings involving violent crimes and non-forcible sex offenses occurring between 1996 and 1999.

The station is being sold, and 'has no interest in pursuing the story,' said Jean Maneke, attorney for the Fox station.

MISSOURI ' A debate erupted this semester over whether college departments should pay for ads in St.

High school students and teachers across the nation faced punishment for acts that would have likely gone unquestioned before the terrorist attacks.

ARKANSAS -- Gov. Mike Huckabee signed a law, 2001 Ark. Acts 1533, that will require all schools to install uniform filtering software on their computers.

\n HB 1003 won approval in April after sponsors withdrew a portion that would have required public libraries to comply.

\n The state is currently evaluating software programs.

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CALIFORNIA ' A new California statute provides immunity to journalists from potential libel suits when reporting acts and threats of school violence.

Under the law, any citizen is protected from liability for defamation if they communicate information to a school official regarding the potential for physical harm to a person on school grounds.

TEXAS ' A high school principal yanked every copy of the school newspaper off the shelves, and then publicly said he was 'embarrassed' by the student editor ' all in an apparent reaction to the terrorist attacks of Sept.

VIRGINIA -- A state law designed to restrict Internet material considered harmful to children was ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge in October.

\n The opinion of U.S.

When an alumnus of Middle Tennessee State University heard the university was contemplating a proposal to switch the publishing control of the campus newspaper from student affairs to the journalism department, his initial concern was the potential threat to editorial content.

Unsure of the motivation behind the proposed change, Jeffrey Syracuse's inclination was that the journalism department was attempting to have financial and thus editorial control over Sidelines. He viewed the move as a threat to the students' press rights.

'I don't see how the paper could be completely editorial independent if it is under the journalism department, where there is a possibility of [professors] having some editorial control,' he said.

In the end the university decided to leave the newspaper under the supervision of student affairs.