A student newspaper at a Virginia college and four student newspaper editors at an Ohio high school that battled efforts by school administrators to control the content of their publications have been named the winners of student press freedom awards co-sponsored by the Student Press Law Center.
The staff of The Script at Hampton University received the 2004 College Press Freedom award on Saturday, Nov.
Despite a federal district court ruling ordering Texas Tech University to loosen its campus speech code restrictions in October, critics of university "free speech zones" say the number of campuses in America with speech codes is not declining.
In 1988, the Supreme Court ruled in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier that educators could censor school-sponsored student expression, including some student publications, if a legitimate educational concern exists. The ruling has limited the rights of high school student journalists under the First Amendment.
Between refining a policy that prevented student media from contacting administrators and passing a policy that inserted the protection of free speech into the college’s faculty handbook, students and school officials at Ohio University have taken steps to challenge First Amendment restrictions on campus.
A bill modifying the state's Sunshine Act, introduced in response to closed talks between Dickinson School of Law and Penn State University, quickly passed the state senate in June.
While student journalists across Pennsylvania quietly celebrate their legal victory against an eight-year ban on alcohol advertising in student publications, students in three states are still working under similar laws.
College media advocates have been on the edge of their seats since January 2004 awaiting a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Hosty v. Carter -- a ruling that was expected months ago.
Nearly two decades ago, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier turned student journalism on its head by vastly expanding the amount of control school administrators could exercise over some forms of school-sponsored student expression, including some student newspapers.
The 1988 Supreme Court ruling reflected a paradigm shift from the 1969 case Tinker v.
Two months after Manatee Community College officially dissolved the student newspaper the Lance, the paper’s editor in chief, Jim Malec, says he will not let the publication die.