Thanks to the permanent nature of a high school yearbook, staffs who simply mean to impart lasting memories to classmates can find themselves embroiled in particularly bitter censorship battles with administrators trying to protect school image.
Students are often left wondering whose book the yearbook is.
UTAH ' A 126-year-old statute that made libel a criminal act was ruled overly broad and unconstitutional in November by the Utah Supreme Court.
KENTUCKY ' Administrators at Murray State University implemented an editorial review board in October for its student-run television station after one official claimed that an animated cartoon that aired was racist.
The television station, TV-11, is required to have a 12-person editorial board that will preview all opinion, editorial and entertainment-based material at least 48 hours before its scheduled broadcast, said Jeanne Scafella, chairperson for the journalism and mass communications department.
Administrators at two schools have been forced to clarify their policies regarding underground newspapers after student journalists protested being censored.
In the midst of a legal battle over two high school students' right to distribute an underground newspaper in Michigan, the South Lyon Community School Board has approved a definitive policy on student distribution of outside material.
The new five-page policy specifically concerns what it calls time, place and manner restrictions, review procedure and content-based restrictions on 'written matter, which is not sponsored or officially endorsed by the district and which is intended for general distribution.'
South Lyon High School Principal Larry Jackson suspended three students last spring for trying to distribute their underground newspaper, The First Amendment, at school.
COLORADO ' Journalists in Colorado gained more protection against lawsuits resulting from mistakes in reporting.
In a 4-3 decision by the Colorado Supreme Court Sept.
CALIFORNIA ' Administrators at the University of California at San Diego have backed off their claims that a student organization's Web site was in violation of the U.S.A.
VIRGINIA ' The principal at Middlesex High School has halted the insertion of the high school newspaper into a local daily, drastically cutting circulation and leaving students to question his reasoning.
Principal David Bridges said the Big Blue Review should not be considered a public forum for the whole community because it is a learning tool for students.
SOUTH CAROLINA ' A school district superintendent cited a policy prohibiting advertising in school publications when he held distribution of Gaffney Middle School's new student paper.
UTAH ' Student journalists at Southern Utah University are resting a little easier, as it appears administrators are backing off their claims that they have a legal right to control the student newspaper's content.
In September, the University Journal criticized the limited availability of condoms on campus, stirring administrators to threaten prior review of the newspaper.
TEXAS ' A student who sued his school district after he was scolded for writing a letter to the editor of the local paper has agreed to an out-of-court settlement.
An agreement was reached after Crosbyton High School student Justin Latimer, his parents, school officials and their lawyers met in December.