Student journalism

==Insights==
: source: Poynter online posted May. 23, 2007 
===First Amendment Pressures Mount for High School Journalism ===
In light of recent censorship incidents, the director of a First Amendment institute argues that professional journalists should take a stronger role in high school newsrooms.
By Warren Watson (http://www.poynter.org/profile/profile.asp?user=293646)
(more by author (http://www.poynter.org/search/results_article.asp?cdl_userID=293646&btn_submit=true) )
Editors, high school journalists need your help. First Amendment freedoms are at stake.
Principals and administrators, seeking greater control of their schools, have become emboldened and are putting the red pen to student newspapers as never before, according to Mark Goodman, executive director of the Student Press Law Center (http://www.splc.org/) .
Consider these incidents this school year:
Administrators reassigned (http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/17239113.htm) an Indiana high school newspaper adviser to a new school where she will teach English, not journalism, because of a student editorial advocating tolerance for gays and lesbians.
Student journalists in Florida (http://www.sptimes.com/2006/10/24/Hillsborough/School_newspaper_cens.shtml) clipped a news story about test scores out of the already-printed school newspaper because the principal didn't want to hurt the feelings of students in low-scoring racial and ethnic groups.
Yet many professional journalists side with administrators. State legislation in Washington (http://www.jideas.org/hb1307links.html) protecting high school and college journalists failed in part this spring because of opposition from the state's largest newspaper and at least two others. In 2005, the Michigan Press Association (http://www.michiganpress.org/) opposed student press legislation in that state.
And while local and state media covered the Indiana case, where the teacher nearly lost
her job, national press largely seemed indifferent. USA Today ran a story (http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-05-08-journalism-teacher_N.htm) , but misstated student journalists' rights under the landmark Hazelwood Supreme Court ruling. (http://www.splc.org/legalresearch.asp?id=4)
But Ken Paulson, USA Today editor and former executive director of the First Amendment Center (http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/) , is a believer. He beseeched editors at the American Society of Newspaper Editors convention in March to come to the aid of their high school
counterparts, saying that the First Amendment pressures facing scholastic
journalism are real -- and critical.
Sometimes it takes a high-profile case. The Indiana adviser, Amy Sorrell of Woodlan Junior-Senior High School near Fort Wayne, Ind., was in the middle of her suspension at the time of the ASNE convention. Sorrell was suspended after the story ran Jan. 19, then reassigned to a new school April 26. Administrators said they considered firing her.
Her situation has energized some editors. (http://www.jideas.org/coalition_sorrell.html)
"This move sets the First Amendment back a notch," said Mike
Smith, a journalist and executive director of the Northwestern University-based
Media Management Center (http://www.mediamanagementcenter.org/) . "Students are the victims of this. Talk about your
teaching moments."
Smith, a former high school journalist in Sorrell's Indiana district, called the school's action "boneheaded."
When he heard of the situation in March, Dennis Ryerson, editor and vice
president of The Indianapolis Star , said: "This really stinks."
The Star and The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette , one of Indiana's largest dailies and the school's local newspaper, editorialized strongly against the school district's actions.
Some editors advocate a stronger professional role in high school newsrooms.
"The students of today are the journalists of tomorrow," said Jeff Cohen, editor of the Houston
Chronicle and chairman of ASNE's high school journalism committee. "It is essential that editors help pour a strong foundation for them and attract them into a craft that stands for making the
world better through the exercise of free speech and free spirit."
Most school newspapers would welcome that support, said H.L.
Hall, former president of the Journalism Education Association (http://www.jea.org/) and executive
director of a scholastic journalism group in Tennessee. "It would be fantastic
if every professional paper in the United States would form a partnership with
one or more schools to help the high school journalism staff both educationally
and financially."
Ken Bunting, former editor and now associate publisher of
the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said: "I have a hard time understanding editors and news
executives who think press freedom for high school and college students isn't
their concern."
Bunting's
paper came out in favor of the unsuccessful student-protection bill (HB 1307 [PDF] (http://www.leg.wa.gov/pub/billinfo/2007-08/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1307-S.pdf) )
in Washington state. "When some
in our industry brush aside and show indifference to censorship and free speech
issues in schools, they are damaging our future, and the future of a democratic
society," he said.
Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment
Center, said: "News professionals ought to defend the independence of
student media and the necessity to have a program in every high school."
The odds seem to be stacked against the First Amendment in
this fight.
State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, of Washington state was
instrumental in the defeat of HB 1307, which would have freed high school and
college journalists there of administrative censorship. In an interview with J-Ideas, he said there is no need for high school
newspapers to practice real journalism, noting that kids today have the
Internet, MySpace and other sites in which to express themselves.
Ongoing studies of high school students, conducted on behalf of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation (http://www.knightfdn.org/) , show that America's high school students may not understand the value of the First Amendment.
A Knight study released in September 2006 (http://www.firstamendmentfuture.org/) showed
that 45 percent of high school students feel that the First Amendment goes too
far in the rights it guarantees. And
more than 75 percent surveyed said they either do not know how they feel about
the First Amendment or take its rights for granted.
Not good news for the future of journalism.
Since the Hazelwood
Supreme Court decision in 1988, administrators have stretched their reach. The
ruling allows for censorship only when administrators can demonstrate a
legitimate educational reason. In more
and more cases, principals censor stories that are simply controversial or
don't reflect well on the school. The disruption the stories would cause,
principals often say, could harm the educational process.
"Many school administrators are proud to censor. They wear it like a badge of honor," Goodman
told journalists at the ASNE convention March 27. "Our schools have failed with
First Amendment education for both students and administrators."
Dave Zeeck, The (Tacoma, Wash.)
News Tribune editor and past president of ASNE, also has been a strong
voice. "Student media," said Zeeck, in
support of the Washington legislation, "should be able to fulfill its mission
as independent public forums for student expression, informing and engaging a
community."
 The Seattle Times ,
much to the dismay of student journalists and others toiling to pass HB 1307 in
Washington this winter, suggested in an
editorial (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/2003549964_schled01.html) that kids should do as professionals do: Engage in "constant
head-butting" and "give and take" with administrators and principals.
That might work with adults.
But a school is a different matter. It is not reasonable to expect that
an adviser, let alone a high school student, can challenge a principal, often
the source of arbitrary power within the schoolhouse gate.
Student journalists are in the process of learning the First
Amendment. Student journalism is education in action. Censorship subverts the
true learning of journalism.
"Too many of us
forget," Paulson said, "that the First Amendment is not handed to a young person
along with a high school diploma. These core liberties belong to every
American, and it's the job of a free press to stand up for all journalists,
whether they're drawing a paycheck or not."
 Warren Watson is director of the J-Ideas (http://www.jideas.org/) program, a First
Amendment and student journalism institute based in the department of journalism at Ball State University (http://www.bsu.edu/) . He worked as a daily newspaper reporter and
editor for 26 years at newspapers large and small, and is a former vice
president at the American Press Institute (http://www.americanpressinstitute.org/) . And, yes, he was editor of his high
school newspaper in Dover, N.H., nearly 40 years ago.
==Links==