Mahanoy decision bolsters democracy’s roots, future
by John Bowen MJE
While words shared in anger in off-campus speech by an unhappy student might not seem to have lasting democratic value, they do. Expressing them and other views provides foundation for our marketplace of ideas, and reaffirms protection for unpopular and unpleasant ideas.
In Mahanoy School District v. B.L., The U. S. Supreme Court decided 8-1 school officials cannot control, in this case, student expression created off grounds. The court did not set additional standards or tests when schools can restrict off-campus speech, according to a Student Press law Center release.
The case developed from a student’s failure to make the varsitycheerleading squad and subsequent vulgar posts about the squad, the school and more.
“America’s public schools are the nurseries of democracy. Our representative democracy only works if we protect the “marketplace of ideas.” This free exchange facilitates an informed public opinion, which, when transmitted to lawmakers, helps produce laws that reflect the People’s will. That protection must include the protection of unpopular ideas, for popular ideas have less need for protection.” (Mahanoy School District v. B.L., emphasis added)
The Court’s decision recognized schools might have special interest in regulating some student speech, but not in this case.
“It might be tempting to dismiss B. L.’s words as unworthy of the robust First Amendment protections discussed herein,” wrote Justice Breyer for the court’s majority. “But sometimes it is necessary to protect the super- fluous in order to preserve the necessary.”
Teaching points from the decision could include:
• Working to help the school’s community understand and support the importance of protecting student speech seen as unpopular or unpleasant.
• Developing educational outreach programming by student media to explain student media responsibility of key legal and ethical principles including student designated forum status, making final decisions of all content and understanding SCOTUS decisions in Mahanoy, Tinker, Hazelwood and others.
• Demonstrating the importance of student journalistic responsibility to as important factors in maintaining and growing our democratic heritage through an empowering marketplace of ideas.
Educating school communities about these principles will show how schools should, and do, carry out their public responsibilities as nurseries of democracy
Read MoreThe fight for First Amendment rights has escalated
by Stan Zoller, MJE
Needless to say, a staple in any beginning journalism course is (or should be) understanding the First Amendment. Many educators go to great lengths, and rightfully so, to make sure their students know the five freedoms guaranteed (religion, speech, press, assembly, petition).
The 45 words are engrained in our, and hopefully our student’s, heads from the days of J-1 and for the rest of our lives.
We know them.
We defend them.
And we expect our government to abide them.
Sadly, the key word in the previous sentence is expect. However, recent stories have indicated that is not the case.
Both The Washington Post and CNN have revealed situations in which the Trump Administration sought to interfere with the practice of a free press.
On May 7, the Post reported:
“The Trump Justice Department secretly obtained Washington Post journalists’ phone records and tried to obtain their email records over reporting they did in the early months of the Trump administration on Russia’s role in the 2016 election, according to government letters and officials.”
Almost exactly two weeks later, on May 20, CNN moved a story that said almost exactly the same thing when it reported:
“The Trump administration secretly sought and obtained the 2017 phone and email records of a CNN correspondent, the latest instance where federal prosecutors have taken aggressive steps targeting journalists in leak investigations.”
Be concerned. Very concerned.
The fear facing the American public at large is that the very principles of our democracy continue to come under attack by government officials who seek to manipulate the Constitution for their own personal vendettas. The assault on the American media, in this case by the Trump Administration, is little more than effort to erode the trust in the media among the American people.
While there may be warts in journalistic practice by some scribes, the reality is that the institution that is the American media is pretty damn good – largely because the framers of the Constitution saw to it that Americans deserved a press that was free of government interference.
Journalism curriculums at all levels need to be tweaked to take into consideration the current climate of battering of the media. For high school educators, the challenge is more daunting. No longer can student journalists embark on journalism because it’s fun or because they have a friend on staff.
It has become a rumble. A street fight.
The challenge for student, if not all, journalists, is echoed in the oath given to the President of the United States to “…preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” By upholding the intent of the First Amendment, student journalists are in essence following the oath. Obviously, scholastic journalists need to understand and practice the full breadth of power and responsibility they have under the First Amendment.
And with this power and responsibility comes something else. Something that may usurp the joy and fun of being a student journalist.
The challenge. Not the challenge of getting a good grade. Not the challenge of meeting deadlines or accurate reporting.
The challenge “from above.” The proverbial trickle-down effect.
The new and now seemingly sad reality, is that interreference by those “in power” who see fit to try and impede the First Amendment Rights of journalists – including student journalists.
In the past, solid reporting and fact checking were the main spears needed to ward off an attack by overzealous administrators, community activists and, sadly, even parents who want to impede the educational process based on their own biases.
Journalism educators need to step up their coaching of student journalists when it comes to identifying support for their First Amendment rights. The obvious first steps are JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee and the Student Press Law Center. Beyond these two pillars of support for scholastic journalism, advisers and students should reach out and connect with state and congressional representatives who understand the need for a free and responsible student press and that fabrications that students don’t have First Amendment rights are unwarranted and unfounded.
Students and advisers should also look for support from organizations like American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the League of Woman Voters. Both groups have regional or local chapters that more than likely be willing to work with students.
The challenge for student, if not all, journalists, is echoed in the oath given to the President of the United States to “…preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” By upholding the intent of the First Amendment, student journalists are in essence following the oath. Obviously, scholastic journalists need to understand and practice the full breadth of power and responsibility they have under the First Amendment.
Stan Z0ller
Scholastic press associations should consider initiatives to step up their efforts to initiate or support New Voices legislation.
The need has always been there. Now, however, the stakes are greater than ever before.
The defense of First Amendment rights can no longer be penciled into a unit in a course curriculum, or on a poster during Scholastic Journalism Week or Constitution Week.
Like the ongoing assault, the defense must be ongoing.
We don’t have a choice.
We need to be concerned. Very concerned.
Read MoreTeaching law and ethics so it MEANS something
by Candace Bowen, MJE
Teaching law and ethics isn’t easy. Most beginning teachers have discovered the hard way that some methods just don’t work. JEA members taking the MJE certification test often have spent far too much time wrestling with the question that asked for a three-week lesson plan on the topic and not having enough time to answer the rest of the questions.*
For instance, dividing their journalism class into groups and having each research a scholastic media court case is one that sounds good at first but often bombs. Sure, they can report on the armbands the Tinkers and Chris Eckhardt wore and end with the famous line: “Students (and teachers – they often forget that part) don’t shed their constitutional rights … at the schoolhouse gate.”
Read MoreGagging students but not requiring masks
by Jan Ewell, MJE
Hannah Watters, 15, suspended for five days, Wed. Aug. 5, for tweeting pictures of mostly maskless students in a crowded hallway at North Paulding High in Dallas, Ga, about an hour outside of Atlanta, is free to return to school Monday, Aug. 10.
Friday, Aug. 7, she tweeted, “My school called and they have deleted my suspension.” She added, “To be 100 percent clear, I can go back to school on Monday.”
According to The Washington Post, county schools superintendent, Brian Otott, had acknowledged the images “didn’t look good,” but suggested they lacked context at the 2,000-student high school where masks were “a personal choice.”
Georgia had 200,000 recorded cases of Covid-19 as of Wednesday. Thursday the state death toll from the disease passed 4,000.
Hannah was suspended for violating the student code of conduct, which states students may not use social media during the day and they may not make recordings without permission of an administrator.
“The principal just said that they were very sorry for any negative attention that this has brought upon her,” The Post quoted her mother, adding ” that in the future they would like for her to come to the administration with any safety concerns.”
If all students who use social media during the school day receive five-day suspensions, even the students who post pictures of yummy lunches or of the morning Pledge of Allegiance, then the school probably did not violate Hannah’s rights.
But if only certain types of speech—or pictures—warrant such severe punishment, then the policy is not content-neutral and is meant to stop only certain types of speech, in this case, speech that does not make the school look good.
Likewise the policy that forbids photography would need to be content neutral to be constitutional — even selfies and buddy pic would need to receive five-day suspensions.
But even if content neutral, a policy forbidding photography is questionable. Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas wrote in 1969 in Tinker v. Des Moines that neither students nor teachers “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”
True, in places where students have a reasonable expectation of privacy, locker rooms, counselors’ offices, even classrooms, photography can be an invasion of privacy, and a school code of conduct may well forbid it. Or if the photographer substantially disrupted learning, that could also be forbidden. But a crowded hallway is a public space with no expectation of privacy, and students have the right to record the conditions there.
Perhaps Superintendent Otott may wish to review Justice Fortas’s opinion, where he wrote, “In our system, state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism. School officials do not possess absolute authority over their students. Students . . . are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect . . . In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.”
At North Paulding High School, masks may be “a personal choice,” but so is documenting conditions there.
Hannah Watters was well within her rights.
Additional resources:
• Georgia school reverses suspension of teen who shared viral photo hallway packed with students
• Viral photo of crowded Georgia high school hallway lacks context, superintendent says
• SPLC condemns the suspension of Georgia students for posting photos of their crowded school during COVID-19
• SPLC, joined by 28 orgs and individuals, sends letter of concern to N. Paulding High School admin and school board over free speech restrictions
• Georgia COVID-19 deaths surpass 4,000 – Fox5 Atlanta
Now things are different in Des Moines
John Tinker signs a black armband for two Callanan Middle School students. They told he and Mary Beth about causes that mattered to them. (photo by Candace Bowen)
by Candace Bowen Second in a series
Des Moines schools, how you have changed since early winter 1965.
That’s when a high school principal got wind of a pending Vietnam War protest – reportedly when his school’s newspaper adviser showed him a story about it for the next issue. He and his fellow principals decided suspensions would be the punishment for anyone who did this.
Read More