Start 2022 with a scholastic press rights refresh
by Sarah Nichols, JEA president, MJE
The first few weeks of a new semester provide an important reset or blank slate. After a challenging fall for advisers, your goal may be to revisit scholastic press rights topics and do more with law and ethics training, especially if the past few months of reteaching and rebuilding called for massive shifts in your curriculum.*
Or maybe January marks the start of a new journalism course entirely, so you’re set to meet a new crop of students and want to begin on building awareness of First Amendment issues and support for student press freedom from the beginning.
In any case, it’s always a good time to include more law and ethics in your journalism program. Here are some ideas for how to start 2022 with attention toward scholastic press rights education.
- Follow the news. Begin with the wonderful news of New Jersey becoming the 15th state to enact specific press rights legislation. The passage of S108 hit right as many schools adjourned for winter break, so this is a great time to discuss it in class. If students haven’t learned about New Voices yet, now is the perfect time.
Key questions: Do students know what press rights protection they have based on where you live? Are you in a state working toward New Voices legislation? Are there ways your students can participate?
For balance, take a look next at this (possibly still-unfolding) not-wonderful news in Colorado.
Key questions: How do you feel after reading the student’s op-ed and the news article about what happened? Why? When it comes to student press freedom, do your students know the differences between public and private schools? If your program operates in a state with legal protection, do your students know what to do if they feel their rights have been violated? Do they know about the JEA’s Panic Button from the Scholastic Press Rights Committee? After reading about the situation at Regis Jesuit, do your students feel called to action somehow? Is this something to write about or explore further?
- Plan for remote learning. Make use of online resources, either to adjust as some schools return to virtual environments or to provide alternatives for students at home due to isolation, illness or other circumstances.
An easy way to provide choice and flexibility is to invite students to choose their own law and ethics session from this free online repository coordinated by Virginia High School League and Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers. Students can produce a slide, mini-lesson or other short debrief to share what they learned.
Seniors can work on Journalist of the Year entries and develop their law and ethics section with some extra help from this Portfolio Polish resource.
Prospective editors can build a plan for how they’ll teach important scholastic press rights issues to next year’s staff. Have you added a related question to your editor interview process?
Students of any experience level can also view and analyze these award-winning First Amendment PSAs and create their own.
All of these options work well for in-person scenarios, too, of course!
- Gear up for Scholastic Journalism Week. What gets scheduled gets done, so it’s time to help students plan for #SJW2022 (Feb. 21-25, 2022) and the #AmplifyingVoices theme.
Student Press Freedom Day is a signature aspect of the week-long celebration. The Student Press Law Center has developed a variety of activities and suggestions for how students can take part in advocacy, outreach and more for a day of action Feb. 24.
Look for more ideas — and share what you’re doing — on social media.
If you’re beginning a semester with new or transfer students, don’t forget to match them with a mentor from your staff to provide extra training on students’ rights and responsibilities as journalists.
As we embrace this fresh start, let’s show students how important these topics are by doing what we can to incorporate law and ethics activities on a regular basis in 2022.
* Don’t beat yourself up about what you didn’t get to last semester. Just start fresh!
Read MorePrior review imposes ineffective educational limits on learning, citizenship
by John Bowen, MJE
Unbelievably, prior review seems to be spreading.
It occurred recently in Illinois, California, Ohio, Texas and numerous additional states. It shows no signs of slowing, despite efforts to pass state legislation to protect student expression.
To read about California review and restraint demands, go here. To read the articles in question go here.
Every scholastic journalism organization has opposed prior review and, hopefully, will continue to do so.
Legally, though, prior review is not unconstitutional although prior restraint – censorship – is in some states, Thus, the best way to fight it is with educational principles and the need for stronger civic engagement.
Arguable points against prior review include:
• It limits student intellectual and societal growth
• It delays or even extinguishes the development of journalistic responsibility
• It shackles critical thinking
• It leads historically to prior restraint which leads to mis- and disinformation
• It has no educational value
Yet, it still continues and spreads.
As journalism teachers we know our students learn more when they make content choices.
Prior review and restraint do not teach students to produce higher quality journalism or to become more journalistically responsible.
As journalism teachers we know the only way to teach students to take responsibility for their decisions is to train them for that responsibility.
As journalism teachers we know democracy depends on students who understand all voices have a right to be heard and have a voice in their school and community.
It is our responsibility to find and publicize ways to convince those who support prior review why the practice has no place in scholastic journalism.
For our democracy, our educational system and our individual abilities to separate credible information untruths.
To gain traction against prior review, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Committee will focus its efforts to provide educational and civic support for advisers, students, parents and administrators so they can best educate their communities.
The resources below represent our initial steps to extend the discussion about the dangers of a practice that historically only led to censorship.
Resources
Prior review
What to tell your principal about prior review?
Why avoiding prior review is educationally sound
Dealing with unwanted, forced prior review?
Definitions of prior review, prior restraint
Prior review vs prior restraint
Questions advisers should ask those who want to implement prior review
Why we keep harping about prior review
Understanding the perils of prior review and restraint
Talking points blog and talking points to counter prior review
And much, much more at Scholastic Press Rights Committee
Read MoreNew Year brings hope for New Voices
| by Jackie Mink, JEA Emeritus Member This past January, I saw television reports about members of the UnitedStates Congress being sworn in for this new year. I also saw this happening with the Missouri legislature, which is the state where I live. New sessions makes me think of the New Voices of Missouri legislation, a movement to guarantee student journalists in the state freedom to report without fear of consequence. Right now, there is no added protection against administrative censorship for high school or college journalists and their advisers, leaving them vulnerable to censorship for simply reporting the truth. According to the New Voices web site and Facebook: • For three years in a row, the Missouri Senate failed to call New Voices reform legislation for a final floor vote despite nearly unopposed approval in the House and in the Senate Education Committee. • Rep. Kevin Corlew introduced a new version of the Cronkite New Voices Act, HB 441, Jan. 5, 2017. The 2017 version addressed concerns raised during 2016, including clarifying that schools and colleges are immune from legal liability for the speech of their students in journalistic publications. • The bill in 2018 would have guaranteed freedom of the press in school-sponsored media for both public high schools and public colleges. Not all speech is protected under the bill. Exemptions include: speech that is libelous, incites violence, contains a threat, engages in illegal activity, violates the rights of others, advertises an illegal product, encourages breaking school policies. • This was the third straight year the bill (which would establish the Walter Cronkite New Voices Act) had passed the House with heavy support and passed a Senate committee, but it has never been brought before the full Senate. • Before the bill was brought up for the committee vote, there were concerns that groups representing school boards planned to propose “killer amendments” that would severely weaken the bill. The New Voices of Missouri Facebook page urged supporters to contact committee members and ask them to reject these changes. The Missouri Education Association, the Missouri Press Association and the Missouri College Media Association all support the 2019 legislation. Dr. Robert Bergland, a professor of journalism and digital media at Missouri Western University emailed me and said, “ In addition to individuals calling/writing, is teachers encouraging their students to write/call. If media advisers set aside 10 minutes to have their students write a quick e-mail or letter/postcard to their Senator (if they wish), that would be great for the bill and a good lesson in participatory democracy. We might want to do the same for the Governor if/when the bill passes the Senate, to have students and teachers and allies encouraging the governor to sign it. Also, encourage people to like/follow the Facebook page.” I emailed and called the office of Missouri State Senator Gina Walsh. She is my state senator, the minority floor leader, and her district encompasses Hazelwood East High School where the Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier case began over 30 years ago. I requested information about whether she supported this bill or not. I have not heard back as of April 12. The legislative session ends May 17. I hope the Show Me State, which is the state of the famous journalist Walter Cronkite, the renowned University of Missouri Journalism school, active and involved student journalists, also the location where the Hazelwood case took place, will be able to pass the New Voices bill this year. Check out the New Voices Missouri Facebook page to keep up on what happens in Missouri and other states where there is an effort to pass bills. New Voices legislation has passed in 14 states, with Washington passing a version of the bill in 2018. Student Press Law Center reporter Cory Dawson wrote Feb. 28, 2019, “Fourteen states already have New Voices laws on their books. So far in 2019, bills have been introduced in 11 states, although two have already failed to pass out of the committee stages. Arkansas (HB1231), Missouri (HB743), Nebraska (LB206), New York (A03079), Texas (SB514), Indiana (HB1213) and New Jersey (A238) already have bills moving through the legislature, whereas bills in Minnesota and Pennsylvania will be introduced in the coming days and weeks. Virginia and Hawaii’s bills have already been killed.” |
Arkansas student journalists lose publishing rights, regain them, support from other journalists
by Jackie Mink, JEA Emeritus member
A recent challenge in Arkansas left a high school’s newspaper censored and prior review started. With support from other scholastic and professional journalism organizations, the school newspaper has now been allowed to publish.
I thought of a line in my favorite book “To Kill a Mockingbird”recently. It was in the courtroom scene when Atticus Finch says to a witness,“You ran to the house, you ran to the window, you ran inside, you ran to Mayella, you ran for Mr. Tate. Did you in all this running, run for a doctor?” As well as wondering why there was no medical attention, Atticus was probably wondering if the real truth may have been discovered if the doctor had been called.
Read MoreWorking together more than just a phrase
by Stan Zoller, MJE
More than a few years ago, I produced a corporate television show designed to inform the United States sales force of a major corporation about new sales, existing customer successes and general corporate information.
It was also quasi motivational and one of the anchors’ walk-off lines was “Working together, we make the difference.” Remember, I produced the show, I didn’t write the copy.
However, as trite as the walk-off for the show was, there is more than a fleeting truth about working together. Especially when it comes to scholastic press rights.
Read More