“New Voices” legislations give young reporters security

Matthew Will
Lantern Staff

In Kansas, student journalists have had the ability to write freely for years, thanks to legislation enacted in 1992. This Student Publications Act allowed student journalists the right to put content out they feel is newsworthy and reliable.

High school newspapers in Kansas have faced problems, but most never to the extent of being censored. Derby High School Journalism Teacher Joanna Chadwick has had occurrences of students’ topics being questioned, but never censored.

“My students have made people mad,” Chadwick said. “I’ve been called into the principal’s office pretty often, but never censoring. We upset some members of the community when we had an issue that delved into sex. A student suggested to the principal that all our stories should be read by him first from then on. [The principal] said that would not happen.”

Kansas’ Student Publications Act states that “school employees may regulate the number, length, frequency, distribution and format of student publications. Material shall not be suppressed solely because it involves political or controversial subject matter.” This gives the publication’s staff the ability to decide what goes in their paper content wise.

Other states are not so lucky, having to go through administrators to get their story topics cleared. New Voices is a campaign that encourages legislators to help student journalists have their first amendment rights. Of all states, only 15 have “New Voices” legislation, giving them security in their writing. Another five states have “New Voices” legislation in the works, which leaves the other 30 states without any sort of protection, leaving them vulnerable for another Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier Case disaster.

The Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier Case was caused because of an apparent censorship attempt. In the final issue of the school’s newspaper, The Spectrum, two stories were removed by the principal because of their content. They were about teen pregnancy and divorce, topics the principal decided were a bit too insensitive. The paper took the school to court, claiming the principal had violated their first amendment rights. In the end, the school and principal’s actions had not been against the student’s first amendment rights, therefore not violating the U.S. Constitution.

“I want to make sure that [my students] are always accurate, doing strong reporting, writing well and telling both sides of the story,” Chadwick said. “They also are expected to write for the website, which forces them to stay on top of what is happening within the school, the community and our country.”

The “New Voices” campaigns may benefit more than just the current student reporters, but also future journalists.