| Protect student press | | Print | |
| Written by The Lowell Staff | |
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In California, several laws protect student journalists’ right to free speech. While students enjoy this protection, sadly this same protection does not extend to advisers of student journalists. While authority figures cannot censor legitimate student journalism, they can legally pressure and harass advisers. California State Senator Leland Yee announced a legislation in a Feb. 29 meeting to protect high school and college journalism advisers from administrative retaliation resulting from student speech. If passed, Senate Bill 1370 will prohibit an employee from being dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or in any way retaliated against for acting to protect a student’s right to free speech. SB 1370 comes after a 2006 law authored by Yee, which prohibits administrative censorship of college press and protects students from being disciplined for engaging in press-related activities. The Lowell staff applauds Yee’s proposal of Senate Bill 1370 as it provides much needed advisor rights, thereby encouraging free speech to thrive in student publications. There are many documented cases ¬— in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Claremont, Fremont, Novato, Oxnard, Rialto and Garden Grove — where journalism advisors have been dismissed or reassigned due to their student’s speech. The bill is sorely needed to stop these vindictive attacks. Former English and journalism teacher Katharine Swan was reassigned from Mission High School when she refused principal Ted Alfaro’s request to review articles prior to publication, according to a Mar. 1 article on Palo Alto High School’s Web site (www.voice.paly.net). “The principal was very unhappy with what the students were writing, and tried to censor the paper,” Swan said. “But the students simply continued to write just as effectively. He couldn’t intimidate me, and he couldn’t intimidate my students.” Today, Mission High has neither journalism classes nor a monthly paper. Only an after school journalism club exists. In another case, Los Angeles Unified School District newspaper advisor Darryl Adams was removed from his advising position after refusing the principal’s request to withdraw an editorial criticizing spontaneous campus searches. Adams was later denied the position of basketball coach and removed as announcer for the football games, according to a Mar. 3 article in the California Chronicle. In the interest of protecting journalism advisers from unjust retaliation by administrators, we strongly urge the State Legislature to pass SB 1370 and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign it into action. |
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