Hazelwood is everyone’s problem
by Carrie Faust
Hazelwood stories: Since the Supreme Court voted to limit the rights of scholastic journalists with the Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier decision in 1988, Colorado – and six other states – have enacted legislation to ensure the rights of students in those states would not be affected.
Ideally, because some state laws can trump federal law, those pieces of legislation should have ensured students would continue to operate with full authority as to the content of their publications and without fear of censorship from their school leaders. Unfortunately, that is not always reality, even in these seven states.
Across this country, principal licensure programs barely touch on the issue of the First Amendment in schools. When they do, Hazelwood, a lesson of ignorance, fear and control, is the lesson taught, even in states with Anti-Hazelwood legislation.
Hazelwood has become a broad, sweeping brush stroke, used to paint over all topics “controversial” or “inappropriate” that may be covered in a school publication. The words “legitimate pedagogical concern” have been used to censor papers for everything from spelling errors to “unsportsmanly” critiques of the football program, to student opinions on the administration.
Hazelwood is everyone’s problem. In the last few years, states with Anti-Hazelwood legislation have been as likely to make the news for issues of censorship as those without. In Colorado, an adviser tried to censor her students for featuring a same-sex couple in the yearbook. A California school district tried to limit the right of scholastic publications to determine the content of their advertising. In Oregon, a school administration confiscated a paper because students ran a Twitter screenshot containing profanity.
Isn’t this illegal? Yes. Principals who have been trained incorrectly, under the Hazelwood standard, to operate out of fear, will make a decision to censor every time. More often than not, after weeks and months of bad publicity for the district, the students regain their right to publish. But, the knee-jerk decision to censor is systemically ingrained.
Hazelwood continues to be the cancerous standard school board policy generators like the Colorado Association of School Boards and NEOLA use, even when the districts they are generating for are in Anti-Hazelwood states. School districts everywhere continue to have on the books school board policies that go against these laws.
Hazelwood is taught to the administrators and policy-makers across our country with no regard for the lies and vitriol that come with it because there has been no large-scale, local, retraction to the Hazelwood language, even though experts agree the decision should not limit student rights the way it has been used.
Hazelwood is everyone’s problem. Even if advisers are lucky enough to live in an anti-Hazelwood state, you, and the students you teach, are affected by its far-reaching implications. Principals are trained using the Hazelwood standard to censor without cause, and students everywhere are self-censoring for fear of repercussion.
The only way to make this right is to demand a review of the Hazelwood ruling by the Supreme Court. They must reverse this decision that flies directly in the face of our Bill of Rights. Until that time, advisers and students must be vigilant in their education of administration and their pursuit of anti-Hazelwood legislation.
Hazelwood is everyone’s problem.
Read MoreTweet19: Practice sensitivity in your reporting
Practicing sensitivity is essential. Examine your approach to covering difficult topics. #25HZLWD http://tinyurl.com/a9w8szq
How do we, as today’s information consumers, sift through the rumors, the gossip, the failed memories, the spin and try to capture something as accurately as possible?
How can we overcome our own limits of perception, our biases, our experience and come to an account people will see as reliable?
This essence of journalism is a discipline of verification. Controversy is in the eyes of the beholder. Our job is make sure anything controversial is reported rightly, accurately and coherently.
We must also note any coverage can turn controversial if the reporter has not done his or her job. As Kovach and Rosenstiel in “The Elements of Journalism” quote Walter Lippmann, “just because news is complex and slippery, good reporting requires the exercise of the highest scientific virtues.”
In other words, the authors say, the journalist is not objective, but his method can be.
Objectivity can thus be equated with the approach, the professionalism in information-gathering and storytelling.
For example, Kovach and Rosenstiel list these intellectual principles of a science of reporting:
- Never add anything that was not there.
- Never deceive the audience.
- Be as transparent as possible abut your methods and motives.
- Rely on your own original reporting.
- Exercise humility.
In applying these guidelines to reporting of teens, also look at: http://jeasprc.org/minors-as-subjects-of-sensitive-topics/
The goal, say the authors, for any coverage of sensitive information or not: what does the audience need to know so it can evaluate the information for itself.
Resources:
• Protocol for covering sensitive issues
http://www.walsworthyearbooks.com/idea-file/32880/protocol-for-covering-sensitive-issues/
• The future of news: Investigative journalism
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbTtS0UWpsE&feature=related
• Explain controversial coverage to your audience
http://rjionline.org/ccj/explain-controversial-coverage-your-audience
• Can unconscious biases affect our news?
http://justicejournalism.org/justnews/index-2.html
• How the media frames political issues
http://www.scottlondon.com/reports/frames.html
• 10 ways to talk to students about sensitive issues in the news
http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/10-ways-to-talk-to-students-about-sensitive-issues-in-the-news/
• Confidential news sources policy
http://www.nytco.com/company/business_units/sources.html
• Getting source consent when handling sensitive issues
http://jeasprc.org/getting-source-consent-when-handling-sensitive-issues/
• Tips for successful investigative reporting
http://www.mediahelpingmedia.org/training-resources/investigative-journalism/583-successful-investigative-journalism
• Six roles, or job duties, of modern journalism
http://howardowens.com/2008/01/26/six-roles-or-job-duties-modern-journalism/
Questions for thought:
• 1 Walter Lippmann once castigated journalists as untrained, accidental witnesses. How do we train them not to be? In a 300-word position paper assignment, suggest ways students would try to develop scholastic journalists who were not.
• 2 Watchdog reporting implies that the student press should recognize where powerful institutions, like public schools, are working effectively as well as where they are not. What types of reporting would illustrate this statement? Develop a lesson plan to explore this approach with students, stressing its heritage and future with new media. Is it something they are willing to do?
• 3 Choose a topic sensitive to your school or one you know would be at your school. Outline the approach to the reporting, from planning to packaging and publishing. (Could also include multimedia. As you plan sources, etc., show how you will avoid legal and ethical entanglements by identifying potential trouble points and how you would solve them.
• 4 School officials argue prior review is important because school media represent the image of the school to the community. Analyze this argument and make two sets of recommendations: one supporting prior review, the other arguing against it. Develop criteria and arguments for each position.
• 5 Explore instances where scholastic media excess damaged public trust, a belief in the First Amendment and/or a school system. What led to the excess? How best could it have been prevented? What actions, including censorship, would have prevented it? Would we be better off limiting our freedoms to avoid the excesses? Why or why not? Sketch out an approach that could have prevented the excess.
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Eager to learn, students find Hazewlood as inspiration, provocation to ‘ruffle feathers’
by Don Bott
Hazelwood stories: My favorite part of teaching Journalism 1-2, the beginning class made up mostly of freshmen, is the unit on press law and ethics. Up until that point, we focus mostly on writing for various pages. A few in the class by this point are beginning to grasp the power of journalism. It is not merely self-expression but something more meaningful. These students want to be on staff next year.
This is the time in the year when I outline the significant rights — and responsibilities — that high school journalists have, especially those in California.
Students become fascinated to learn about something as fundamental as First Amendment rights. They marvel at what a brother and sister went through at an Iowa high school long before they were born. My students, who mostly see clothing as a matter of fashion, are now thinking about a black armband and the abstract notion of protest. They then shudder to see how student voice, protected in one historic Supreme Court ruling, could be challenged some 20 years later because of articles that potentially “make the school look bad.” This is history they can relate to.
Advisers in California should not have to worry about Hazelwood, about a principal as “publisher.” Sure enough, my 20-plus years of advising newspapers have been free of administrative intrusion. Still, in this favorable atmosphere, educating students is almost more important. With more rights comes greater responsibility — for the adviser and for the students.
Curiously, I have found that students are often timid when it comes to how far their reach should be in a story. Regardless of law or ed code provisions, many are reluctant to offend. They want to look good and sound good and not be seen in any way that is bad. Rather than wait for some outside authority to stop them, they are too willing to censor themselves. The boldness of a staff from Hazelwood East High School must serve as inspiration, provocation: Find the story out there that is compelling, the story that must be told, the story that will ruffle feathers.
The legal restrictions of Hazelwood, I like to say, have “never applied to California.” But Hazelwood has always mattered in this state. Students need to be educated, and sadly so must many educators, even administrators.
As I write this piece, I am closing out the unit on press law and ethics, a unit that gets longer every year. Students are more excited about journalism than they have been all year.
Read MoreTweet18: Develop, follow code of ethics
Develop a strong code of ethics, and follow it daily in planning all coverage. #25HZLWD http://jeasprc.org/tweet18-develop-follow-code-of-ethics
No matter which media platform you use, ethics will play a daily role in your decision making.
Rushworth Kidder in “How Good People Make Tough Choices” says ethics is a “right versus right” process.
“Right versus wrong” situations are best decided by knowing and applying press law. The act of deciding involves a concept we will call ethical fitness. Ethical fitness removes the need for control because students practice critical thinking. At the same time, we do not permit anyone to punish students for making – or failing to make – decisions that are not right versus wrong instances.
When it is time to take action, students who are ethically fit, who have already done the thinking, are prepared to resolve issues they face.
From story selection to explaining why a decision was made not to name a source, ethical thinking is at the core of a successful scholastic journalism program.
Resources:
• NSPA Student Code of Ethics
http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/pdf/wheel_modelcodeofethics.pdf
• JEA Adviser Code of Ethics
http://jeasprc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/JEAadvisercodeof-ethics-2015.pdf
• Press Rights Commission Online ethical guidelines for social media
http://jeasprc.org/online-ethics-guidelines-for-student-media/
• Press Rights Commission yearbook ethical guidelines
http://jeasprc.org/yearbook-ethics-guidelines/
• Visual reporting ethical guidelines
http://jeasprc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Visual-ethics2012.pdf
• Questions student staffs should discuss before entering the social media movement
http://www.jeasprc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Questionsstudentstaffsshoulddiscussbefore-enteringsocialmedia-environment.pdf
• Online ethics resources
http://www.jeasprc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Questionsstudentstaffsshoulddiscussbefore-enteringsocialmedia-environment.pdf
• Journalism ethics situations
http://jeasprc.org/constitution-day-learning-materials-part-2-journalism-ethics-hypotheticals/
• Social media toolbox available
http://jeasprc.org/social-media-toolbox-available-to-help-those-considering-and-using-social-media-in-journalism/
• So say we all
http://jeasprc.org/so-say-we-all-2/
• What values?
http://new.jmc.kent.edu/ethicsworkshop/2009/
• What are the ethics of online journalism?
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Blog12: Out of adversity, strength: Hazelwood leads to thoughtful passage of Iowa free expression law
by Jack Kennedy
Hazelwood stories: Random thoughts about the Hazelwood decision:
- I was aware of this court case as it developed, unlike the Tinker case. I had been a high school sophomore when the protests in Des Moines were going on in December of 1963. I was 100 miles away, but may as well have been light years away, for all the knowledge I had of what Mary Beth and John and Charles were doing.
- I was in the protected enclave of Iowa City, and by the late ‘80s the newspaper and yearbook were well-established as progressive voices for a progressive community. The threat from the Hazelwood decision was, for us, less visceral and more philosophical. Iowa City High School was unlikely to change its support of the Tinker standard, and we were blessed with administrators who trusted us to push the boundaries, but to ultimately be about the thinking and writing and coverage that the school had come to value.
- Freedom without limits leads to chaos (as we see in America’s love affair with the gun), and the Hazelwood decision led to numerous individual and class discussions about what those limits might be. It occurred to me even then that this decision produced more solid learning about rights and responsibilities, and the role of the student press in the community, than I had seen in years.
- I still marvel at how quickly state leaders such as Mary Arnold, then director of the Iowa High School Press Association, and Merle Dieleman, Ann Visser and other Iowa advisers, and an obscure state senator from Solon named Richard Varn not only adapted state statutes from California and Massachusetts and wrote an Iowa law, but pushed it through the legislative process so quickly that Iowa had a law signed by the Republican Governor, Terry Branstad (and yes, he’s back), in roughly one year.
- I had a small part in the writing and lobbying, and remember meeting the governor in Des Moines a few months after the law was signed and complimenting him on his support for student free expression. The look on his face was that of surprise that he had actually signed such a bill. I suppose he found himself in that difficult place some lawmakers experience, trying to balance his faith in freedom with his basic distrust of young people and with education in general. Back in 1989, he chose to side with freedom.
- Sure, that freedom has some limits, but we can live with those. After the law was passed, the Little Hawk prospered to such an extent that the paper won nine Pacemakers in 10 years. I suspect that the freedom to cover literally any issue, no matter how sensitive, contributed to that success.
- Out of adversity grew strength. I hated what Hazelwood represented, and still do, but it was a great reminder that the fight for freedom is never truly over. It needs to be cherished and struggled over, day after day and year after year.
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Tweet16: Know how to fight legal battles, if you must
If legal battles are necessary, students have to fight them, and know protected from unprotected speech. #25HZLWD http://tinyurl.com/bc98rs4
Advisers cannot fight legal battles for students. It is imperative students understand the difference between protected and unprotected speech and what is worth fighting for. Additionally, students need to know the process and resources available for them to fight censorship. Decisions to enter into legal battles cannot be made lightly. Before this step is taken, know the best ways to fight.
Resources for unprotected speech:
• SPLC/CMA Legal Bootcamp – Student Press Law Center
http://www.splc.org/presentations/pppressfreedom.pps
• Student media guide to Internet law
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=73
• Understanding student free-expression laws
http://www.splc.org/news/report_detail.asp?id=1351&edition=43
• SPLC presentations and handouts usable in the classroom; also lesson plans (scroll down the page)
http://www.splc.org/presentations/
• SPLC podcasts
http://www.splc.org/podcasts/
• First Amendment FAQs
http://archive.firstamendmentcenter.org/Speech/faqs.aspx?id=15822&
• Legal guide for the private school press
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=52
Resources for fighting censorship:
• Fighting censorship: A Checklist
http://www.studentpress.org/nspa/trends/~law0305hs.html
• Fighting censorship after Hazelwood
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?id=5
• High school confidential
http://www.ajr.org/article.asp?id=2554
• Censorship statement
http://azaipa.org/?page_id=66
• A student media adviser’s guide to fighting (and surviving)_ censorship
https://www.splc.org/classroomresources/mediaadvisertips.asp
• Fighting journalistic media censorship must start locally
http://jeasprc.org/fighting-scholastic-media-censorship-must-start-locally/
• Posts tagged “The Spoke”
http://jeasprc.org/tag/the-spoke/
• Resources for publications facing censorship
http://friendsofthespoke.org/Resources_for_a_publication_facing_censorship_-_Friends_of_The_Spoke.html
• Press freedom at a public junior or high school
http://www.splc.org/knowyourrights/legalresearch.asp?subcat=1