Definitions: prior review, prior restraint, public forums

Prior review is the practice of school administrators – or anyone in a position of authority outside the editorial staff – demanding that they be allowed to read (or preview) copy prior to publication and/or distribution.

Prior restraint occurs when administrators – often after they have read material (prior review) – actually do something to inhibit, ban or restrain its publication.

Public forums by policy: An official school policy exists that designates student editors, within clearly defined limitations (no libel, obscenity, etc.), as the ultimate authority for determining content. (A publication’s own editorial policy does not count as an official school policy unless some school official has formally endorsed it.) School administrators actually practice this policy by exercising a hands-off role and empowering student editors to lead. Advisers teach and offer students advice, but they neither control nor make final decisions regarding content.

Public forums by practice: A school policy may or may not exist regarding student media, but administrators take a hands-off approach and empower students to control content decisions. For some period of time, there has been no act of censorship by administrators and there is no required prior approval of content by administrators. Advisers teach and offer students advice, but they neither control nor make final decisions regarding content.

Student journalists make ethical decisions daily, whether in advertising, design, information gathering or reporting. It is essential and ongoing.

A number of excellent resources exist for helping students, their advisers and those in their communities make those decisions. Administrators help students and their advisers with this task through positive reinforcement of journalism activities. One point is important to note: Ethics are only guidelines. They do not represent standards for punishment or discipline.

Administrators should follow two basic practices with student media:

School boards and student media
School boards, elected governing bodies of public schools in many states, set policies regulating school procedures. They do not manage day-to-day activity in schools, but can and do pass policies that may be counterproductive to an administrator’s view of student media.

Administrators should review school board policies that govern student free expression because they are charged with upholding school board and state code governance policies

The value of using social media

Mobile phones, tablets, laptop computers and other devices make it possible for teens to stay connected virtually every moment of their waking lives. As a result, much of the information they gain about their school, community and world at large comes from online sources – in particular, social media.

In the 2011 “Future of the First Amendment” survey of more than 12,000 high school students and 900 teachers sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, researcher Dr. Kenneth Dautrich found that nearly two-thirds of high school students obtain news and information from the Internet at least several times a week, while half use mobile devices such as iPhones and Blackberrys for the same purpose. More than three-quarters of high school students use social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr at least several times a week for news and information – and nearly half spend some time seeking information about what is happening at school.

Internet access and safety
Today’s student journalists must learn to navigate and produce online media. The choice is clear — provide an educational environment in which students learn to use the Internet with adult facilitation, or leave students to educate themselves with no such guidance. Because the First Amendment protects Internet freedoms in much the same way it protects print media, it is essential for administrators to understand the boundaries of the law.

Understanding filters
The Children’s Internet Protection Act mandates filters in public schools, although many administrators are unaware CIPA also allows for their removal in certain situations. Use in journalism programs should be one of those exceptions because filters often block relevant research material and prohibit students from learning online responsibility.

“Student media are designated public forums, and free from censorship and advance approval of content. Because content and funding are unrelated, and because the role of adviser does not include advance review of content, student media are free to develop editorial policies and news coverage with the understanding that students and student organizations speak only for themselves. Administrators, faculty, staff or other agents shall not consider the student media’s content when making decisions regarding the media’s funding or faculty adviser.”

                                   — Society of Professional Journalists’ Campus Media Statement


Laws indicate what journalists must do while ethics indicate what they should do.

Rooted in ethics, responsible and free journalism adheres to applicable laws and operates using professional standards to enhance student media’s reach and impact.

Journalism, truly the cornerstone of democracy, starts at the scholastic media level, where students learn the legal and ethical implications of free media that make the United States unique among nations.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects free speech and press freedom of all Americans, including students in school. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has made clear these rights are not unlimited, it has also affirmed neither “students [nor] teachers shed their Constitutional rights to freedom of expression at the schoolhouse gate.”

In fact, free expression has long been regarded as the foundation of U.S. democracy. Thomas Jefferson perhaps said it best: “Our liberty depends on freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost.”

The first direct experience most Americans have with press freedom, and the censorship that limits it, begins when they are in school working on student media. That’s why journalism educators, judges and First Amendment advocates have urged schools to support and foster student free expression because it is key to persuading young people “that our Constitution is a living reality, not [just] parchment preserved under glass.”