SPLC addresses JEA’s prior review, restraint definitions
The Student Press Law Center, in its May 4 blog, put JEA’s newly adopted definitions of prior review and prior restraint into legal and educational perspective.
“If a school official insists on reading a student publication ahead of time, they will eventually try to censor it,” SPLC consultant Mike Hiestand wrote. “I would like someone to prove me wrong on this, but I’ve never seen an established system of prior review that has ever remained a pure “reading only” practice.”
In its newly adopted guidelines, JEA created the following definitions:
• Prior review occurs when anyone not on the publication/media staff requires that he or she be allowed to read, view or approve student material before distribution, airing or publication.
• Prior restraint occurs when someone not on the publication/media staff requires pre-distribution changes to or removal of student media content.
“In the real world …” Hiestand wrote, “experienced, trained advisers that work closely with their students, offering suggestions for improvement — often after reading the content ahead of time — can be a valuable and welcome resource, something the JEA recognizes in excluding such ‘advising’ from its definition of prior review. But even advisers, the definitions recognize, can go too far, and ‘when an adviser requires pre-distribution changes over the objections of student editors,’ the definition states, ‘his/her actions then become prior restraint.'”
Check jeasprc.org soon for recommendations on how advisers can assist students without making decisions for them or requiring them to make changes they don’t want to make.
Read MoreFight for the right distributes flyer
Supporters of the Fight for the Right to Write are currently distributing flyers within their community.
The group’s Facebook page reports more about the flyers and about T-shirts the group has for sale. Their page also has contact information for those wishing to be involved and an order form for T-shirts.
The group has a May 3 informational meeting for any interested in changing the Puyallup policies of prior review.
Look at the group’s flyer here.
Read MorePlaying in the court of public opinion
Students and friends of student media in Washington’s Puyallup school district are ready to take the next step in their fight against prior review since a jury declared they had not invaded students’ privacy and the school had no liability in a story about oral sex.
Their next fight will be in the court of public opinion.
Student journalists in the three schools have set up a Facebook site in preparation for an organizational meeting May 3 to urge local schools to drop prior review from Puyallup publication policies. The site has 300 plus friends.
They also have a Twitter site.
They are psyched and have T-shirts, buttons and flyers.
They have talked to Henry Rome, 2009 JEA Journalist of the Year who, with other students in his community started a website to convince his school not to implement prior review.
The Friends of the Spoke won. The Conestoga High students also presented a session at the Portland JEA/NSPA convention about how others could duplicate their feat. Rome also addressed the convention about their fight. Their website also has information on the resources they used in an effort to change the board’s views.
Now, the Puyallup students will try to do the same.
Check out their website. Join their cause. Consider such action if you face prior review.
Prior review – which leads only to prior restraint –has no educational value. Help end it in Puyallup’s schools.
Read MorePaper carries more information on Puyallup decision
The News Tribune today reported more information about a jury’s decision that student journalists did not invade the privacy of four other students or negligently publish their names.
The story also notes some jury members told the school’s lawyer that the jury believed in freedom of expression and that the story concerned matters of concern and relevance to students in general.
Read MoreJury finds for school district in Puyallup case
The News Tribune is reporting the jury found for the Puyallup school district. The story indicates more information coming tomorrow.
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