Bill aims to protect students’ press rights

OLYMPIA – The First Amendment rights of high school and college journalists are up for debate in Washington state, as lawmakers consider whether young scribes should have the same free-press rights as their professional colleagues.

Rep. Dave Upthegrove, D-Des Moines, has introduced a bill that would ensure student journalists aren’t censored, and would not allow public schools or universities to discipline or fire a student media adviser for refusing to censor students.

“I don’t think you lose your freedom of speech rights just because you’re young,” Upthegrove said. “The right of free press is more important than the fear of inappropriate content.”

The bill is in response to the 2005 Hosty v. Carter ruling by the 7th U.S. District Court of Appeals in Chicago. The court said administrators at Midwest universities could review student articles before publication if their student-run newspapers are published under the auspices of the college. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case.

Even though that ruling only covered Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, student journalist Brian Schraum, wanted to pre-empt any similar issues in Washington.

The Washington State University student brought the issue to Upthegrove last summer, who agreed student journalists needed a greater guarantee of protection.

Washington would be following the lead of California, which after the Hosty ruling, moved quickly to pass a measure to prohibit college and university administrators from censoring student newspapers. Decades earlier, in 1977, California adopted a law providing high school students strong free press protections. It expanded that law in 1992 to extend that protection to private schools and to student speech activities outside of student media.

Five other states – Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa and Massachusetts – also have passed similar laws on high schools, all in response to a 1988 U.S. Supreme court ruling that school officials could censor school publications.

The measure is House Bill 1307.