Opinion ID: 197368
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Publications

Text: This case involves two distinct Lexington High School (LHS) student publications, the LHS Yearbook and the LHS Musket. The Yearbook was operated entirely by a staff of about sixty students; all editorial, business, and staffing decisions were made by students. During the 1993-94 academic year, this staff was headed by two co-editors-in-chief, DowChung Chi and Natalie Berger. Karen Mechem, a LHS teacher, 1. The court acknowledges the assistance provided in the briefs amici curiae filed by the: National School Boards Association, Illinois Association of School Boards, and California School Boards Association's Educational Legal Alliance; Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association; Massachusetts Family Institute; Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents; Student Press Law Center, National Scholastic Press Association, Journalism Education Association, Scholastic Journalism Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Columbia Scholastic Press Advisers Association, New England Scholastic Press Association, and Yankee Press Education Network. -4- was the Yearbook faculty advisor. Mechem was paid a stipend of less than $2,000 for that activity. Apart from Mechem's stipend and the use of LHS buildings and facilities, the Yearbook is financially independent from the school and is funded entirely through the sale of the books to students and advertising. Like most yearbooks, the LHS Yearbook included pictures of seniors and other students, sections on sports, academics, and activities, and an advertisement section. This advertisement section was largely comprised of congratulatory or commemorative ads purchased by students and their families. As the Yearbook advertising order form suggested, student ads might include [b]aby pictures, group photos taken in the setting of your choice, [or] pictures of meaningful people and/or places. A few advertisements were also sold to local businesses; most of these included congratulatory messages to the graduating class. During the 1993-94 academic year, the Yearbook's unwritten policy was to publish advertisements from those local businesses which the students frequented or had some relationship with during their high school years. In keeping with this policy, students selling ads targeted those businesses that fit the Yearbook theme of fond memories. The Yearbook's policy was not to publish any political or advocacy advertising, including ads from candidates for -5- student government.2 The purposes of this policy were to ensure that the advertising section of the Yearbook was congruent with the rest of the publication and to prevent the Yearbook from becoming a bulletin board for competing issue groups or candidates in a way that would interfere with the commemorative purpose of the Yearbook. The LHS Musket is a student-written and edited newspaper that is published four or five times a year. All editorial, operational, and staffing decisions are made by the student editors. During the 1993-94 academic year, Ivan Chan served as the Musket's editor-in-chief, Dong Shen was the business manager, and Samuel Kafrissen was the faculty advisor. Students do not seek or obtain the approval of the faculty advisor for any editorial or operational decisions. Kafrissen is paid a stipend of $1,373 by LHS, and the Musket receives about $4,500 a year from the School Committee. The Musket has no physical facilities at LHS, other than a mail box; all the layout is done at editors' homes. The Musket 2. The record does not reveal whether political or advocacy advertising other than the ad giving rise to this litigation was ever submitted to the Yearbook or the Musket. However, those affiliated with the Yearbook and the Musket believe that neither has ever published a political or advocacy message or accepted an advertisement from a political or advocacy organization. Yeo offers no evidence to the contrary, and the record, which contains the advertising sections of several Yearbooks, bears out defendants' description of the types of congratulatory advertising printed. No evidence was produced that the Musket had ever printed a political or advocacy advertisement. -6- typically includes news articles about the high school, features, editorials, letters to the editor, sports coverage, and humor columns, all written, edited, and produced by students. The Musket is described in literature distributed to the student body as being a student run newspaper which is written, edited and distributed by students. The editorial page bears a legend stating expressly that the opinions stated there are those of the student editors or newspaper staff and not of school policy. Not every issue of the Musket contains advertising. Those that do contain two or three small ads from businesses that cater to student tastes. During the 1990s, those advertisers have included a bookstore, a video store, a music store, a driving school, a deli, a hair salon, SAT prep courses, and, around prom time, a tuxedo rental store and a dress shop. For the 1993-94 school year, the Musket created an Advertisement Form for potential advertisers. The form stated that: The award winning Lexington High School student newspaper provides area businesses and non-profit organizations the opportunity to place advertisements in the Musket. The form did not state that ads were subject to editorial approval, although it did note that, depending on the issue, ad size might have to be adjusted and ads might have to be edited, by the paper's staff, for length. The -7- form also stated that [p]ayment . . . for an ad will occur only if and after we publish an ad. (emphasis added). Pursuant to an unwritten policy, the Musket has never accepted advocacy or political advertising, including that from candidates for student government. The purpose of this policy was to prevent the Musket from becoming a bulletin board for warring political ideas. The students also rejected the idea of allowing cigarette ads in the paper for fear that such advertising would be read as an endorsement of smoking.