PRESS RIGHT S MINUTE
Private Schools, Public Rights
Public school student journalists have a trump card — although it
doesn’t always work. If the administration censors their student
media, often they can point to the FIRST AMENDMENT and court
cases like Tinker. These students have rights.
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.
P
and both all-girls’ schools.
How were they able to
convince their administrators
to give them something they
didn’t legally have to give?
Thus when 11 schools
became 2016 First
Amendment Press Freedom
Award-winners, the inclusion
of two private schools in the
list seemed like a bonus.
Schools that receive
this award first submit
applications from one media
adviser and editor. Those
selected for the second round
must submit questionnaires
from the principal, plus
advisers and editors for
each student media outlet,
all explaining how student
free speech is practiced
and promoted in their
schools. Representatives of
the Journalism Education
Association, National
Scholastic Press Association
and Quill and Scroll
International Honorary make
up the selection committee.
rivate school student
journalists don’t
have that option.
In general, their
administrators or school
governance doesn’t need
to offer free speech to
them. As the fourth edition
of Law of the Student
Press says, “Because the
First Amendment begins,
‘Congress shall make no law
. . . ’ courts hold that only the
government and those acting
on the government’s behalf
are constitutionally barred
from denying a person the
right to free speech.”
Convent of the Sacred
Heart, also a winner in 2014,
and The Archer School for
Girls are both in California
Adviser Kristin Taylor and
her two co-editors-in-chief
pointed to several reasons
the student journalists at
Archer School
for Girls are able
to make content
decisions for
The Oracle,
their online
publication.
Staffers for the
Broadview at
Convent of the
Sacred Heart work
together on
material for their
next publication.
(photo by Tracy
Anne Sena)
Taylor had no journalism
background and was
“reluctant” when she agreed
to oversee a journalism club
five years ago. Now what
started as “maybe five middle
and upper school girls who
met at lunch once a week”
has grown into become a
class and an award-winning
news website.
Administrators never did
practice prior review, Taylor
said, probably because
it was a “low-key club” at
first. But as she educated
herself and then her girls
in responsible and ethical
journalism practices, they
realized they needed
policies the administration
acknowledged and accepted.
“By the time I really started
to make it official, we had already built a foundation that
this is a good and fair paper,”
Taylor said. “It is fact-checked
and reliable.”
Syd Stone, co-editor-in-chief,
described a meeting when
the journalists invited all the
administrators, including
the head of school, to their
journalism class one day and
“educated them first” on the
importance of media. “Then
it became a conversation,
where we openly talked
about issues. Opening up the
dialogue is really important,”
she said.