Press Law:Your Rights and Responsibilities as a

Student Journalist

Tinker vs. Des Moines School District

• February 24, 1969• Students Christopher Eckhardt, John Tinker, and

Mary Beth Tinker suspended• Protesting Vietnam War by wearing black arm bands• Courts upheld students

• Students and teachers do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier

• January 13, 1988• Hazelwood East High School principal

censored newspaper• Articles on teen pregnancy and divorce• Paper staff sued school district• Established the practice of public forum• School can’t censor without reasonable

educational justification

Effect on Freeman

• School publications are either based on Hazelwood or Tinker

• Tinker schools: operate under an open forum policy

• Hazelwood schools: operate under a closed forum policy

• Freeman is a closed forum school• Prior Review

Areas of Unprotected Speech and Action

• Substantial Disruption of School Procedure– School Limits• Forum Theory• Prior Restraint

– Who’s responsible?

• Turn to Case Study worksheet and complete

Areas of Unprotected Speech and Action

• Libel– Libel occurs when…– Libel vs. Slander– Kinds of Libel

• Pure Libel• Malice• Guilt by Association

– Defenses• Honest mistake/retraction• Truth of statement• Fair comment and/or criticism

– Libel damages– Turn to Libel worksheet and complete

Areas of Unprotected Speech and Action

• Right of Privacy– Publication of Private matters– Intrusion– False but not defamatory statements– Commercial expropriation– Fair-Use Law

• Turn to Right of Privacy worksheet and complete

Areas of Unprotected Speech and Action

• Obscenity– LAPS test– Local standards

Protecting Student Press Rights

• Editorial Policy• Editorial Board• Publication Board

• Turn to Letter’s to the editor and Censorship worksheets and complete