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Washington State Student Press Rights
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Prior review are two words that student journalists shudder at across Washington State. Student journalists, whether minors in high school or adults in college, must submit their work to the principal/dean/etc to see that the material is "suitable."
However, there are cracks.
An administrator can "veto" a student's piece of work simply because he or she doesnt like it, or may not necessarily agree with it. But they can create grounds for their veto. A disturbance to the school, school audience isnt mature enough, etc.
Ridiculous right?
How is it that student journalists who want to continue their work in the "real world" get that experience when they are limited to what they can report on? How is it that Washington state can allow house bill after house bill supporting student press rights to FAIL.
When will we stand up for student rights?
Should we not have the right to report on viable topics, controversial topics, simply because we aren't writing for an actual professional newspaper?
Should topics like homosexuality, the growth of open sexuality in the US, harassment, abortions, etc be banned topics?
Or should we, as American people, have the same rights as other journalists to report freely on valid topics? To do our jobs as journalists and inform the public of hard-pressing issues.
I'm currently working on my Culminating Project, to some known as their Senior Project. I'm doing mine on journalism- specificly, I wish to write an article on student press rights and how students in Washington state have the right to report freely, without bias or heavy restriction. I want to submit it to as many Washington state newspapers as I can to see if I can get it printed.
But I need some help. I want to know your opinions, anything you might know about this topic, and anyone you might know who is knowledgeable in this topic as well.
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Comments
TeGoulet wrote on 10/10/08 • 8:04pm
Wow! Great post! I agree with you completely on this one. I think the system as it stands is not fair at all.
I don't know much about this topic but I would recomend checking out the blogosphere and seeing whats out there. Also, search WA state newspaper archieves to see if any professional journalist have written on this topic.
If you find anyone, introduce yourself to them and gain them as an ally!
Best of luck
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ThePharcyde wrote on 10/11/08 • 12:12am
I agree with you, though I was watching a independent lens episode on UPenn's newspaper and something happened. They ran a story about gay and lesbians, nuetral, feel good, because some sort of special holiday..i forgot. but then a reader sent a pretty sexist and hurtful comment and the newspaper decided to print that letter from the reader. It got real confusing then because the newspaper, while not explicitly condoning the view, gave it a wide audiance. The result was expolisive with lots of drama and tears. needles to say it was not reviewed and people couldn't be mature and held walk offs and ralied and disturbed the school really bad. Also, you could mention the growth of off campus publications. For example, all the ivies have sex magazines run by students and the admins not crazy about it.
But I hope your project takes off and turns out good. I'm so glad my school waives senior project with junior research papers! mine was on copyright laws, similar themes..
kat wrote on 10/12/08 • 12:06pm
you bring up some interesting points. However, I think that it should be pretty obvious what is appropriate/disruptive to an environment and I think that off campus sex magazines and high school "gay bashing" letters would fall under the disruptive categories. Maybe a better shield for these things than a prior review would be teaching students responsibility and accountability, yes?
savannah.peterson wrote on 10/11/08 • 5:04pm
I'm going to have to agree with both Pharcyde and Tyler above me, great post, I know i've said it once, but you should be entering our contest...
When you thing about it, it's rather incredible what rights people below the age of 18 of denied. One is not even legally in charge of themselves. Considering one cannot vote, leave school on their own merit, posses a weapon, etc. pre-18, it's no surprise that those in power would believe these individuals cannot speak for the themselves.
This is an outrage. And this is exactly why Pugetsoundoff.org exists. We are uncensored, youth monitored straight publishers of whatever content you chose to produce. Continuing fighting the good fight, for it is a valiant one- however the obstacles the old ones pose are great.
In the mean time, we're happy to take everything your newspaper won't :)
kat wrote on 10/12/08 • 12:09pm
haha, thank you very much for the support =]
i completely agree with your point on the pre-18 responsibilities. The thing is with prior-review however, even adults in college are subject to it. ANY student, regardless of age, can be censored.
It truly is a shame.
Daisy Jane wrote on 10/14/08 • 11:09pm
This post is really interesting! I was on newspaper in my public high school in California and I don't remember having to submit my articles for prior review. I wonder if my work was covertly reviewed without my knowledge, or if, as I suspect, my more radical article proposals were vetoed before I had the chance to pursue them. To the same effect, I suppose. It is interesting how age and positions of power can determine whose voices and what ideas get heard!
actuallyfreedom19 wrote on 10/18/08 • 4:26pm
I think what you are doing is amazing. You are really fighting for something you believe in. I am on my school newspaper and u have no knowledge of my articles being read by any " higher power".
huskygirl87 wrote on 10/19/08 • 7:23pm
This is super interesting to me. Like Daisy Jane, I also was on my high schools newspaper in California. We had pretty liberal public school publishing rights and it was a daily battle to make sure they were upheld. We definitely didn't have prior review from the administration, but as editor I could also challenge our advisor if I thought she was overstepping her boundaries. I believe that a student-run newspaper should be just that: student run. I understand that the administrations at many schools feel they need to not step over any lines, but how can you really make a difference if you don't ruffle any feathers? In your project, you might want to try comparing Washington State Student Press laws to others states and see how they stack up. It might add some insight. I'm also curious about which states are the worst.
GREAT idea for a Senior project!
dwyman wrote on 10/20/08 • 6:55pm
The problem with what you're trying to do is this: because the schools fund the papers, they are therefore responsible for what gets printed. They are responsible if a lawsuit is brought, and they really can't defend that well.
If you really want to do good reporting, create an alternative, and distribute it yourself, online or otherwise. I know of principals who want to print something good, but can't because they couldn't handle a possible lawsuit.
kat wrote on 10/21/08 • 5:02pm
That is a good point, but when legality issues arise due to a student article it actually falls on the student and Journalism Advisor's shoulders. And if the point in giving more student press rights is to train our future journalists what its like in the "real world", they would need to have evidence to back up all of their statistics, information, interviews, etc. Even now, with prior review laws, I keep all my information/research/notes for every single article i write just in case it turns into a legal battle.
Rather than go behind the districts' backs, I would much rather have a cooperative program- for print, online, etc. We need to give more credit to students (whether minors or adults) and teach them more, rather than censor them more.
dwyman wrote on 10/21/08 • 6:10pm
Actually, as long as the administration is responsible for censoring bad content, they can be held responsible.
If what you're saying is that we should change that, I ceritanly agree. But the fact is, someone needs to be responsible, because if something truly offensive gets printed, there needs to be accountability.
kat wrote on 10/23/08 • 2:39pm
My point was that we should change it :) Because if we did, the administration would not be accountable. The Journalism Advisor and the author would be, along with the Editor-In-Chief. In all actuality, this would probably give teachers the opportunity to teach their students more about accountablility, responsibility, and journalism ethic because the student is left with the threat of a court case if they print libel, etc.
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