While this article was written over seven years ago, I think that it raises a very important issue that will only increase in importance as time goes on. With access to the internet, kids have found a way to go around the censorship that schools have placed on student newspapers. In 1988, the Supreme Court affirmed the right of school administrators to censor student articles. Students have now found a new way to get around that censor; the internet. According to several court rulings, the internet is out of reach of school officials, even if the students focus on school issues. According to Edwin C. Darden, a staff attorney for the National School Boards Association,
The dilemma is that the student is off campus, and they have First Amendment rights. On the other hand, school officials have a responsibility to protect the school and not have those rights cause harm or fear within the school walls.
What should be done? Is the internet free game for the students, or should school officials be able to censor them? According to Lance Lipinsky, a student and founder of an online newspaper,
No one wants to offend anyone. But there are kids in the journalism department, and they are very talented, but can’t say what they want to because it’s censored. We have found a way around that.
I think that this is a great concern that many educators have. While students certainly have thier First Amendment rights, I think that as soon as they decide to write about school and the people in that school, they lose those rights and should be censored by school officials. The interent is a great tool that can be used, but I think that the schools need to have more influence on what their students are posting about them. Maybe in some way, the internet should be seen as an extension of the classroom.
“Student Journalists Turn to the Web to Circumvent Censorship”
From eSchool News Staff and Wire Service Reports
Really interesting post, Jon. I don’t think I agree with you though. If students are at home and want to blog about their friends that go to their school, or what happended at school that day should that also be the concern of the school? And if so, how would they go about monitoring all of that? I agree with you that they should have some say over what gets put out there about them, but if the students aren’t making anything up then I think its totally within their rights to say it. If you give the school the power to control some aspect of student life outside of school, where does the line get drawn? It all gets too complicated for me. I think that as long as its not on school ground or printed in anything owned by the school than its non of their business (unless, like i said before, its made up).
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