Smart kids take action via Web
Post Falls High seniors Holly Bowen and Nadia Aikins tested their administrators’ knowledge of the First Amendment, and the school officials failed that test.
Principal John Billetz and others overreacted to Post Falls Uncensored, an underground Web site written and edited by the pair and others – rather than view it as a free expression of the teens’ views about their high school. Administrators called students into the office to find out who was involved in the online publication. Officials also blocked access to the site from school computers, which, of course, prompted students to seek a way around the filter or to enter the site from home.
Billetz and his staff should consider themselves lucky that Post Falls Uncensored is more responsible than most underground high school publications. Rather than encourage a school walkout to protest hall passes and mandatory assemblies, as an editor of an underground paper at Lake City High School did last year, Post Falls Uncensored wants a dialogue with the administration about various issues, including pep rallies and their Web site. The bright youngsters point out correctly that high school is more than pompoms, football and statues in the trophy case.
High school should be a coming-of-age time when students are exposed to important core subjects and have a chance to sample elective courses and extracurricular activities, from drama and student government to sports. The editors, writers and cartoonists of Post Falls Uncensored ventured outside the mainstream because they believe the school newspaper ignores subjects that are important to students. Rather than subject them to a witch hunt, administrators should respect their drive and talent.
Otherwise, the school could find itself on the wrong side of a legal opinion.
Students have a right to distribute publications on school grounds as long as the material isn’t unlawful, according to the Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit institution in Arlington, Va., that offers free legal aid to high school and college journalists. In a 2003 interview with The Spokesman-Review, attorney Mike Hiestand of the law center defined “unlawful” as libelous, obscene, an invasion of privacy or creating a serious physical disruption at the school. In other words, student journalists can’t say anything they want about anyone with impunity.
A Lake City High policy requires underground journalists to contact administrators before they circulate their newspaper on campus – and then possibly the student council. LCHS Principal John Brumley, who dealt with three underground papers last year, reasoned that students who want to effect change help their cause by going through proper channels. Beyond that, he said, he can do little to control the content.
In trying to censor Post Falls Uncensored, Post Falls administrators have fewer grounds than Lake City High had. The underground e-zine is produced off campus on the students’ own time and not distributed on campus. School officials have drawn attention to the site by their heavy-handed attempts to regulate it. They should back off.