Finding pieces of the puzzle
that is scholastic media
Looking for the pieces to the journalistic puzzle a new year of student media will bring?
Here are some pieces that might help:
• Use of the Panic Button can help with legal or ethical issues.
• Constitution Day materials available around the first of September. Congress mandated schools must provide lessons and activities on Constitutional issues Sept. 17. Check out our past materials and be on the lookout for ones to come this year.
• Need a quick way to start your class each day or once a week? Listen to our Press Rights Minutes with information on a variety of legal and ethical points.
• Facing changes in what you report and how to do so? Our Foundations Project will provide extensive information, lessons and articles on building effective editorial policies, supporting them with strong ethical guidelines which in turn are strengthened by detailed staff manual procedures.
More, including links to SPRC lessons, will come soon.
Read MoreOur best dream: start from the beginning
An article in the Washington Times titled “Liberals’ worst nightmare: South Carolina schools move toward pro-gun curriculum,” caught our attention tonight.
SC Rep. Alan Clemmons’ proposal would allow, according to the Washington Times, “reasonable pro-gun expression by students.” The proposal would require instruction on the right to bare arms for at least three consecutive weeks in the school year.
We applaud a legislator farsighted enough to want students to be aware of the Constitution and to apply its tenets.
We just think he started the process one too late.
He should start with the First Amendment not the Second.
We can see the model now:
• From his proposal: essay contests and Second Amendment Day allowing “reasonable” Second Amendment expression in school without fear of punishment, The Washington Times reported.
• Our addition: essay contests and a First Amendment Day allowing “reasonable” free expression emphasizing student freedom of expression in and out of school for each school year.
• From his proposal: According to the Washington Times, Clemmons said, “I believe that all students in American should be taught civics and the importance of our constitutional freedoms.”
• Our addition: What he said. But start with the First.
The freedom to speak:
the John Wall Voices Act
by Faith Harron, sophomore
Century High School
Century Star newsmagazine
The Constitution of the United States guarantees all are created free and equal and endowed with the same rights.
When it comes to journalism, though, many high school and college students are not equal to their adult counterparts.
Some a few in North Dakota are trying to change that. With the backing of representatives Jessica Haak and Corey Mock, a bill was written by college students at the University of Jamestown and introduced it in the House this month.
The current bill, the John Wall New Voices Act, is something different. It would grant student journalists in high school (like me) as well as college limited First Amendment rights to publish school newspapers.
“The John Wall New Voices Act is a wonderful tool to ensure student journalists are provided the same freedoms that professional journalists are awarded thanks to our First Amendment,” said Corey Mock, assistant minority leader in the North Dakota House of Representatives. “Since I had been working on the bill with Rep. Haak since April of 2013, sponsoring the bill was the easiest decision I have made all session long.”
Censorship is akin to blunting a pen, or even writing in invisible ink. What purpose does the story serve if it never sees the light of day? This is sometimes the case when prior review is allowed.
This allows the censorship of “questionable content.”
But who is the judge of “questionable content?” Is it the authorities in the school? The journalism advisers? The students, who have been taught to judge between right and wrong?
Jeremy Murphy was a West Fargo teacher who was fired because there “was a difference in philosophy when it came to student journalism and how students decided content for the publications,” he said.
He was later rehired by the school district and continues to teach journalism with no prior review, and adds “there is probably a fear factor when it comes to a bill on student expression…some people might think it allows students free reign on what they can do.”
However, there are guidelines written into the bill for appropriate student speech. But there are other concerns about the bill.
[pullquote]Censorship and the chilling effect are hard to prove. We can show how…widespread this issue is nationally, and we hope that our legislators will know that we North Dakotans are not immune. – Steven Listopad, University of Jamestown[/pullquote]
“[A] threat to a bill like this is the ‘ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ principle,” said Steven Listopad, the teacher who helped his Jamestown students draft the bill. “Censorship and the chilling effect are hard to prove. We can show how…widespread this issue is nationally, and we hope that our legislators will know that we North Dakotans are not immune. We North Dakotans, just like any other human being, will choose more control over less in any given situation even though when it comes to your right to speak less control is exactly what we need.”
What started as a class project in COMM 412: Civics and Citizen Journalism at the University of Jamestown has become a bill…and possibly a law.
“The John Wall New Voices Act will be heard by the House Education committee this month and hopefully given a ‘do pass’ recommendation before it comes to a final vote on the House floor,” Mock said.
I’m just one high school journalist, and I can’t say I speak for all undergraduate nonfiction writers out there. But I would never consider writing something libelous or obscene. Knowing my peers, I don’t believe they would, either.
It’s a bill. It won’t solve the world’s hunger problems, and it won’t make everyone equal. It probably doesn’t matter to everyone in the world.
But it matters to me, and my peers, and maybe it can help someone share their story. At the very least, it’s a start.
Read More
5 Important points you might have missed this week
With all the attention to Constitution Day and its lessons this week (which are usable any time), you might have missed other points of information:
• Friday, Sept. 19, the SPLC released information about reprinting its articles. For more information, go here.
• The same day Evelyn Lauer posted commentary to Huffington Post on the Neshaminey board suspension of its newspaper editor and adviser.
• An article on the Thinkprogress site about the Neshaminy issue.
• A column by Megan Fromm about the importance of news literacy and a scholastic journalism where students make all final decisions of content and learn from that action.
• A Thinglink visual linking to other essential SPRC works
Read MoreIt’s ironic
by John Bowen
It’s ironic that Sept. 17, a day mandated to honor the Constitution of the United States, also this year marks the 2-day suspension of Neshaminy adviser Tara Huber for what the board of education calls insubordination.
The board suspended her without pay for failing to stop students from defying its directive. Her crime: She did not censor her students’ actions, actions she had no part in and did not even know about.
Additionally, the board of education stripped the students’ fundraising account of $1,200 to reimburse printing costs when students failed to print a letter in that issue using a term they deemed offensive.
In our minds, Huber and her students, through their actions of following their beliefs and Constitutional protections, represent the true spirit of the Constitution.
Today.
Tomorrow.
Every day.
Background materials:
• Constitution Day lessons
http://jeasprc.org/the-playwickian-v-neshaminy-school-board-what-is-freedom-of-the-student-press-and-how-does-a-staff-make-and-defend-editorial-decisions-a-lesson-in-freedom/
• SPLC search for Neshaminy
http://www.splc.org/search/?q=neshaminy
• Neshaminy HS adviser suspended over newspaper’s ban
http://www.philly.com/philly/education/20140917_Neshaminy_HS_advisor_suspended_over_newspaper_s_ban.html
• Neshaminy suspends newspaper adviser for two days without pay
http://www.buckscountycouriertimes.com/news/local/neshaminy-suspends-newspaper-adviser-for-two-days-without-pay/article_1473f7c9-2647-56f4-8d6e-27441c6f6c0e.html
• Editor, faculty advisor suspended for refusing to print ‘redskin’ in school paper
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/18/editor_faculty_advisor_suspended_for_refusing_to_print_redskin_in_school_paper/