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By Candance Perkins
Bowen & John Bowen
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Adviser Update
Why we must have a Hazelwood Cure
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P07.V53.I4
SPRING 2013
Page 18A
Candace Perkins
Bowen, MJE
directs the Center for
Scholastic Journalism and the Ohio
Scholastic Media Association and is
an assistant professor at Kent State
University. She can be reached at
School of JMC, 201B Franklin Hall,
Kent, OH 44242 or by phone at 330672-8297 or at [email protected].
John Bowen, MJE
MJE, chairs the
JEA Scholastic Press Rights
Commission. He is an adjunct
professor in journalism at
Kent State University. He can
be reached at School of JMC,
201B Franklin Hall, Kent, OH
44242 or by phone at 330-6723666 or at [email protected].
ormally, a 25th
anniversary is a big
deal. A time to celebrate,
a time to give thanks.
A notable exception is
this year’s 25th anniversary
of the U. S. Supreme
Court’s Hazelwood v.
Kuhlmeier decision, which
has essentially undermined
freedom of expression for
a generation of high school
journalism students and their
advisers, and potentially
left countless graduates
wondering if democratic
principles really apply and
could survive.
Since then,
• A SPLC and Center for
Scholastic Journalism survey
of students and advisers
at the San Antonio JEA/
NSPA convention reported
42 percent of students and
41 percent of advisers who
took the survey reported a
school official reviews the
content of their student news
medium before publication.
Of the 4,540 students and
teachers who attended
the National High School
Journalism Convention in
San Antonio, Tex., Nov.
15-18, 2012, 500 students
and 78 advisers responded
to survey questions asking
about their experiences with
censorship of student media.
In addition, 10 percent of
advisers said school officials
had threatened their position
as adviser or their job at the
school based on content
decisions their students had
made. Both student and
adviser respondents indicated
self-censorship was an issue
they confronted. Thirty-nine
percent of students and
PRESS RIGHTS
Update art by the Student Press Law Center
32 percent of advisers said
their staff had decided not to
publish something based on
the belief that school officials
would censor it.
• In the survey, 58 percent
of advisers surveyed
reported someone other than
students had final authority to
determine content of student
media.
• A Maryland school board
proposed a policy that would
strip students and teachers of
copyright ownership of their
works.
• A proposed Indiana law
would fine students, former
students and parents for
making fake social media
profiles of teachers.
Based on the survey,
Professor Mark Goodman,
Kent State University’s
Knight Chair in Scholastic
Journalism, said, “If more than
40 percent of these students
are experiencing censorship,
it’s a reasonable assumption
that the number for all high
school student publications in
the country is much higher.”
These statistics and
incidents are simply part of
an ongoing saga of events
and issues swirling around
an atmosphere of destructive
precedents created by the
Hazelwood decision 25 years
ago.
Neither the journalistic
process nor information
coherence works under an
educational system guided
by foggy and manipulative
Hazelwood thinking, where
prior review and prior restraint
silence debate, undermine
trust and keep information
from making sense.
Hazelwood’s effects will
only continue unless we do
all in our power to educate
ourselves, our students and
our communities about why
we must have a Hazelwood
Cure.
And then we must work to
create one.
If we continue to ignore
Hazelwood’s cost, if we do
not seek a cure, then we bear
the burden of responsibility
for the lack of action that
enables such cultural malaise
to continue.
To do nothing is to choose.
To help people build
ideas for what they can
do, the Student Press Law
Center and JEA’s Scholastic
Press Rights Commission
concurrently developed
information to inform and
educate people about the ills
of the Hazelwood decision
and to create approaches to
cure its issues.
The SPLC’s pieces were
titled Cure Hazelwood. The
press rights commission’s
were Seeking a Cure for the
Hazelwood Blues. Both sets
of materials were developed
for the weeks around Jan. 13
– and beyond.
As you re-examine your
lessons and your plans for the
rest of the year or next fall,
keep some of the important
legacy in mind, and consider
these and other information
and how you will handle it:
• SPLC’s Cure Hazelwood
information at http://www.splc.
org/cure.html
• After 25 years, impact
of Hazelwood on student
journalism is mixed, experts
say at http://www.splc.org/
news/newsflash.asp?id=2517
• The 25th anniversary:
Seeking a cure for the
Hazelwood Blues at http://
jeasprc.org/seekingcure/
• Blueprint for state
legislation at http://
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