PR ES S R IGH T S M IN UTE
Don’t let funny things happe
A
new school year
often brings new
challenges for a new
staff and sometimes
a new adviser.
John Bowen
John Bowen, MJE, is an
adjunct professor at Kent
State, chair of Journalism
Education Association
(JEA) Scholastic Press
Rights Commitee and
former Dow Jones News
Fund National Journalism
Teacher of the Year. Bowen
has been a member of the
SPLC Board of Directors
and convener of the SPLC
Advisory Council and a
high school journalism
teacher and adviser.
One of these challenges is to
ensure your students have
the best possible editorial
policy, accompanying ethical
guidelines and staff manual
procedures.
The language of those
policies (whether they give
editorial control to students
or keep it in the hands of
school officials) and the
amount of freedom that
students have traditionally
operated under at the school
can determine whether
Hazelwood or Tinker sets the
standard for what school
officials will be allowed to
censor.
The Journalism Education
Association’s Scholastic Press
Rights Committee (SPRC)
Foundation package can
help both beginners and
experienced advisers and
their students achieve an
informational package that
guides and protects students,
adviser and school system.
Such a package starts with
students choosing which
of three forums they would
rather be:
• A CLOSED FORUM is akin to
a school or PTA newsletter,
content controlled by adults.
• A LIMITED PUBLIC FORUM
suggests the forum is “open”
but limited in some way.
How it is limited is the crucial
determination. At least one
court case suggests schools
can limit content and national
policy consultants have that
interpretation.
• A DESIGNATED PUBLIC OR
OPEN FORUM gives students
final control of the content.
A designated public forum is
created when school officials
have “by policy or by practice”
opened a publication for use
by students to engage in their
own free expression.
Of the three types of forums,
JEA strongly endorses the
designated (open) public
forum model. Specifically, the
SPRC endorses this statement
for scholastic media editorial
policies:
[Name of publication]
is a designated public
forum for student
expression. Student
editors make all
content decisions
without prior review
from school officials.
Two things are important
about the phrasing of this
policy statement. First is the
use of the words “designated
public forum” as opposed
to “limited public forum”
or other similar language.
Although many once
believed the two phrases
were interchangeable, some
recent court decisions have
suggested that using the
word “limited” opens the
door to school censorship as
permitted under Hazelwood.
Second, using the phrase
“student editors make all
content decisions” is in many
ways a clearer restatement of
the meaning of “designated