Where is the First Amendment on high school campuses? Where is the First Amendment on high school campuses? (December 09, 2005)

Foothill article raises questions about the role of student newspapers
by Rebecca Guyon

When it comes to student newspapers, school administrators continue to grapple with finding a balance between upholding students' rights while exerting administrative control.

Whereas independent newspapers, and even newspapers on college campuses, are clearly protected by the First Amendment, high school papers continue to be a gray area because they are funded by the school and usually created in a class. Being sponsored by the school means that administrators can have the final say on what goes in the paper, but it varies by school districts how administrators decide to exert that control, or if they do at all.

Foothill High School has been examining this issue after the student newspaper, InFlight, ran an article and editorial on the front page of the November issue that critiqued the school's counselors. The article claimed that counselors have given students faulty information and do not spend enough time getting to know students. While the school did not limit student access to the paper, the paper's advisor Meleah Jones said she received e-mails from teachers and staff on campus who thought the article was unfair.

"My feeling was that it did not accurately represent the feeling of the majority of the student body," said Foothill counselor Susan Shanker, who was quoted in the article and one of the three counselors used as a source for information. She believes the article was biased and presented incorrect information about how counselors spend their days. She also took issue with the placement of the editorial on the front page and felt the headline did not match the article.

The article and editorial ran under the headline, "Students question counselors' abilities." Jones agreed that it was a mistake to run the editorial on the front page and that the headline was misleading.

"I don't think we did everything wrong in the article, but there were some learning mistakes," Jones said.

"It's a problem the students are having, so we should address it in the newspaper," said senior Katherine Seo, co-editor of InFlight and author of the editorial. Several students were quoted and named in the news article saying they were displeased with advice they received from counselors. Vivian Lau, also a senior and co-editor of InFlight, wrote the news story and said she and the other writer asked random students during their lunch period, who they did not previously know, about their views of the counselors.

Seo and Lau did agree that, while the paper should not back away from reporting on subjects that concern the students, in this particular instance they would have been more careful in their choice of words and would have focused more on the fact that the counselors may not be able to meet student needs because of the 700 to 1 student-counselor ratio.

"It's okay for students (to address campus issues), but it comes with some responsibility," said Foothill Principal Kevin Johnson.

In fact, the school district's Education Code says, "[e]ditorials may freely aim constructive criticism at school organizations, procedures, and policies, but such criticism should reflect the opinions of a cross-section of the publication staff. Editorial columns which express only the opinion of the writer shall be bylined." Seo's byline ran under her editorial.

"The Ed-Code is actually very pro student press," said John Benbenek, advisor for the Amadon, Amador Valley High School's newspaper. Benbenek said he first seriously looked into the school district's policy a few years ago when students wanted to write an opinion piece on partial birth abortions. Due to the controversial nature of the topic, he informed school administrators about the students' idea and reviewed the past policies relating to student publications. The only real restraint is that an article must be well written and unbiased - a goal of all good journalists. After reading the students' articles, Benbenek felt they met that criteria and let them run. The articles did not receive negative feedback, which he attributes to the fact that the articles were well-rounded and fair.

"You wear two hats as a high school advisor," he said. "You have to promote the ideals you're teaching about First Amendment rights, but as a teacher on a team, you have to anticipate and plan ahead. While I don't advocate restraint, it's important for advisors to navigate tricky sites."

Part of the confusion in the recent Foothill incident was that Jones and the students felt they had "planned ahead" by showing the article to the counselors before it was published to verify its accuracy. Shanker said she was under the impression that they could not change what the students wrote, but only fix mistakes in terms of numbers and statistics. Jones and the students said they wanted the counselors to change anything they perceived as incorrect. When the article was returned, they were under the impression that the counselors were okay with it, which is why they were surprised when they received complaints after the article ran. However, when the counselors reviewed the article, it did not have a headline on it and it was not laid out on the page.

Since the article ran, the counselors and the students at Foothill seem to have settled their differences, and the students even have tentative plans to run another article focused more on the counselors' day-to-day activities. But while Foothill has resolved the issue for now, there is still no definitive answer nationally for how administrators should relate to student newspapers. At the end of November, Oak Ridge High School in Tennessee received national attention when administrators confiscated copies of the student newspaper saying it was inappropriate for students because it contained articles about the success rates of different birth control methods and a photo of an unidentified student's tattoo.

"Schools do have the right to limit what students can say, but the hard part is to balance it," Jones said. "I do believe our newspaper should be for the students, by the students."

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