Students stop presses to tell Hazelwood story,
principal wears black armbands with them
by Terry Nelson
Hazelwood stories: Yorktown High School newspaper/ Broadcaster students of 1988, do you remember the Hazelwood First Amendment Supreme Court decision?
It was 25 years ago… Here’s how I recall our story…
I can’t believe it was 25 years ago. My students and I had discussed the Hazelwood case extensively in class, so on the day the results were supposed to be decided by the Supreme Court, I was teaching a night class at BSU, and unknown by me, my editors went to the Muncie newspaper’s office and were allowed to sit on the floor and wait as the news came over the AP wire (back then there weren’t computers used to transmit news yet).
When the decision came in and it was a judgment against the students, my own newspaper students tried to get ahold of me in class, but couldn’t (before cell phones too!), so they called the printer and literally “stopped the presses” on our Friday edition, went back to school and started rewriting the front page with the Hazelwood decision and the impact on all sorts of First Amendment student situations at school.
At 10 p.m. when I returned home, a couple of kids were waiting outside, tapping on my windows. When they came in and explained all that they had done, I was so proud.
But the story isn’t over yet. We decided we would call the entire staff and ask them to wear black tomorrow (Friday) when the paper came out to signify our mourning for the “death of student rights.”
We also decided to call our principal, Dr. Jerry Secttor, and he agreed to wear black too. We had our group picture with the principal taken outside the front office by the American Flag in black the next morning.
The printer had already printed the front page of the paper announcing the resignation of our school superintendent before the students’ call, so we had TWO editions of the paper to distribute to the students that day.
I love high school students. I love quality high school journalism programs. And I love the sense of reality and importance our students’ journalism study produces.
Read MoreCalifornia ed codes protect student expression, adviser teaching
by Casey Nichols
Hazelwood stories: I live and teach in a state protected from the Hazelwood decision by a carefully crafted California Education Code. And yet, periodically it rears its ugly head.
In the past 19 years since I’ve advised at Rocklin High School, in both yearbook and newspaper, a parent will on occasion take exception to something we’ve published. They will do an Internet research, and then cite Hazelwood as a reason “I” need to edit the students. I reply with a link to California Ed Code 48907 as a starter, and proceed to explain how this superseded the Hazelwood decision and protects student expression across the board.
Each time my school has had a change of principals I spend time educating them on state law (and our board policy). Fortunately, three of the four have understood the value in freedom of expression. We also develop an understanding of what education code means by an adviser’s role in assuring the highest possible quality in reporting and mechanics.
I have often thought of setting those high expectations often as we approach potentially controversial areas. While in graduate school I actually met the student’s and lawyer who defended the case. I remember how much it offended their sense of right and wrong to have their work censored. It reminds me that as a teacher I must expect excellence and thorough reporting; as an adviser I must my students, and have their back when they’ve done their job and still get questioned.
I am further proud that California has gone on to protect adviser’s jobs with SB 1370, which guarantees they cannot be removed for protecting student’s rights of expression. There is little more dear to all of us than our First Amendment Rights, and as it is so often, high school journalism is the perfect laboratory to learn, practice, and master effective use of those rights.
Read MoreHazelwood made some better teachers, journalists; others suffered from fear
by Nancy Hastings
Hazelwood stories: It’s hard to believe that it’s been 25 years since the Hazelwood decision came in…. it seems like only last week when the phone calls poured in from local media and area high schools asking for my opinions on what this would mean and my help to defend student rights from administrators already trying to clamp the voice of criticism.
I always thanked my lucky stars that I worked in a school district and community that supported our student media. While we didn’t always agree, the administration believed in us to act responsibly. In fact, my principal used to tell me that he’d rather answer questions from student journalists than the local media, because at least the students quoted him accurately.
I do think Hazelwood made us better journalists. We still tackled stories that mattered, but we became more conscious of the need to cover all sides of the story as accurately as possible. The students became better critical thinkers as they debated issues and backed up their beliefs. The decision encouraged more open communication as editors scheduled regular meetings with administrators to discuss subjects that mattered to both sides. In fact, they often invited the principal to attend Editorial Board meetings when the staff had concerns they wanted to discuss.
I think Hazelwood in some ways made me a better teacher. I started teaching in the Tinker era when… “students nor teachers shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates.” I could no longer take those rights for granted. I had to fully understand student press law and ethics, so that my students could decipher their rights and responsibilities. These students in turn, used that knowledge to help educate each new young administrator who believed students had no rights to criticize any school decision or activity. As students became more proficient in understanding the pedagogical mission of schools, they became more confident as reporters and writers.
Unfortunately, not all student journalists have been so lucky. Area administrators have confiscated newspapers that criticized a coach, have shut down a publication that called for the school library to be open longer after hours to allow students to research, and set have set up prior review because student journalists criticized school policies. New advisers with little journalism background have become controlled PR tools of their administrations, fearful of covering anything that matters. So many staffs self-censored themselves, knowing someone is watching over their shoulders.
I remember that cold January day as if it were last week. Many journalism programs have thrived on the strength of a responsible student voice. Unfortunately many more have suffered under the misconceptions of the Hazelwood decision.
Read MoreScholastic journalism enhances critical thinking, exploration and leadership;
Hazelwood promotes none of it
by Bob Button
Hazelwood stories: The Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood is arguably the worst blow to scholastic journalism in our lifetime – primarily because it struck a hammer in favor of control and against education in America’s schools.
Having grown up in an era when student newspapers were seen as PR tools for the school, when I moved to Grosse Pointe, Michigan, for a full-time journalism position, I asked my new principal in our first meeting what the guidelines were for what could and could not be printed. He looked at me and said, “I thought that was why we hired you!” That was in the late ‘60s, just as students were beginning to challenge everything.
What followed was a career supporting students as they explored topics of interest or importance in their lives – even if they were potentially controversial – and encouraging students to cover subjects in depth or take a stance in editorials or columns with a full understanding of the issues involved. That is critical thinking at its best and it promotes leadership. Never did an administrator tell us we could not cover a subject, even if it put the school in a poor light. But with freedom comes responsibility. We made some mistakes, which led to one of the first staff-written editorial policies in the country, putting in writing the student editorial board’s responsibility for serving the newspaper’s readers.
Students cannot learn critical thinking if that thinking is limited arbitrarily. Students cannot learn responsibility or leadership if they have no freedom to make decisions.
Too many principals then and now think they teach responsibility when they exercise control. They do not. They simply relieve students of responsibility. When students have no control, they respond either by acquiescence to the demands of those in power or by challenging the power in some other way. Neither is a desirable outcome.
With the Supreme Court decision in Hazelwood, many principals simply maintained the control they had always exercised, or established control they had relinquished under Tinker. My principal didn’t change a thing. Hazelwood does not mandate control – it permits it – and my principal was more interested in education than in control. But in the 25 years since Hazelwood we have a whole generation of administrators who see control as their first priority, of teachers forced to be concerned first and foremost with test scores, of students who think of school newspapers as an exercise in innocuous comment.
Sure, there are wonderful administrators, great teachers and challenging students fighting the good fight. But Hazelwood promotes none of it.
Read MoreHazelwood is what advisers make of it,
only as strong as you allow it to be
by Ben Harwood
Hazelwood stories: Ultimately, it’s up to advisers to dictate Hazelwood’s lasting impact.
Hazelwood’s defining legacy can be one of obstruction, censorship and frustration – an all-encompassing “disruption-to-the-educational-process” shield wielded by administrators fearful of litigation.
Or it can be used as a vehicle to build better student journalists – making them more skeptical, deliberate, detail-oriented and ever in search of more expert sources.
I’ve chosen the latter.
With the exception of obscenity, unprotected speech and stories that will place a source or reporter in danger, Hazelwood shouldn’t influence an adviser’s decision to green light a reporter’s story.
Want to cover X or do a feature about Y? Awesome — go for it.
When the topic is controversial, the journalist’s goal should be to objectively investigate and accurately report a story in a manner so compelling and so strongly sourced, the publication has no choice but to share it with the community.
I’m not suggesting a wild, throw-caution-to-the-wind approach.
Instead, embrace the many teachable moments that come with proactively diffusing potential obstacles.
Encourage your editors and reporters to consult an outside legal expert before going to print. The Student Press Law Center is an amazing resource. My staff runs two or three stories a year past them (which reminds me, I should probably send over a gift). Develop relationships with law school professors. Build partnerships with professional journalists nearby.
In short, make it easier for your administrator to believe in your students, your program and – most importantly — you.
These steps build credibility and give your students’ newsroom an air of professionalism.
I’ve been fortunate to build and maintain the support of administrators and the community. I’ve never been threatened with censorship or prior review. Along with my editors, I helped craft the district’s publications policy.
But I’ve worked hard to develop my program’s credibility and in this community, nobody demands more or has higher expectations than I do.
There’s a phrase I often repeat to my students: “You will be taken as seriously as you take yourself.”
The grammar is brutal, but the point is simple – preparation, combined with the right amount of well-placed confidence, can go a long way.
Student journalists provide an important community service and are capable of exceptional work. No court decision will ever change that.
Hazelwood is only as strong as you allow it to be.
Ben Harwood is newspaper adviser and FLEX teacher at Seaholm High School in Birmingham, Michigan.