Do your student media meet First Amendment standards?
The five scholastic media organizations offer secondary schools across the country an opportunity to show they are First Amendment-relevant schools through completion of a survey as part 1 for the First Amendment Press Freedom Award. The questions below are part 1, and can be used to evaluate your school’s First Amendment status.
Circle your choice: Yes, No or Don’t know (should be avoided or explained) Take this quiz before and after you read the book.
1. Does your school actively protect First Amendment rights, including artistic expression by students and faculty?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
2. Does your school promote and support teaching of the First Amendment through classroom instruction and activities?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
3. Does your journalism curriculum include instruction in press law and ethics?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
4. Has any school administrator or faculty member required student journalists or a publication adviser to submit content for prior review before publication? (Prior review is NOT the same as having a journalism teacher or media adviser coach students during the process and thus must read content.)
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
5. Is there an expectation that student journalists or publication/media advisers will allow a school administrator to read stories or media content, especially those deemed controversial, before publication?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
6. Do students, who are encouraged to first consult with their adviser, then make all final content decisions for student media before publication or broadcast?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
7. Does your school remove Internet filters to allow for journalistic use?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
8. Has an administrator or faculty member ever held your publication and not allowed its distribution?
Yes (briefly explain the circumstances ___________________________________________)
No Don’t know (explain: ______________________________________________________)
9. Has a student been punished by the school within the past year for the content of a home website or an off-campus publication?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
10. May student faces and names be used on your online student publication website?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________) Names but not faces Faces but not names No student-run website
11. Subject to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions for distribution of the publication, would students be able to report on a student walkout during school hours?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
12. Would students at your school be able to report on clubs possibly considered controversial, such as for a gay and lesbian group?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
13. Is there a published board of education policy establishing your student-run publications/media as forums for student expression?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
14. If there is no published board of education policy, are your student-run publications/media outlets operated as public forums by practice?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
15. During the past year, has your publication been restrained from distribution other than time, place, manner restriction?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
16. Is your publication able to endorse political candidates if editors choose to do so? Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
17. Has any administrator or faculty member disciplined any publication student for a viewpoint he or she published or wanted to publish in the last year?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
18. Has any advertisement or potential advertisement been blocked by an administrator or faculty member in the last year?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
19. Have you allowed sources to read stories before publication in which their quotes appear? (It is OK to verbally check quotes with sources.)
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
20. Have you ever attempted to file a Freedom of Information Act request with your school or community?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
If yes, were you able to get the information you requested? Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
21. Has any student publication editor been dismissed or disciplined for publishing, attempting to publish or recommending a position on a topic?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
22. Has your publication/media ever been told there are any “off-limits” topics that cannot be published or broadcast?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________) If yes, what were they? _________________________________________________________
23. Has any adviser been dismissed or fired, or threatened with dismissal or firing, because of a topic the publication covered or proposed to cover?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
24. Has the journalism program faced removal from the curriculum because of threats based on coverage or proposed coverage of any topic?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)
25. Does your school system’s administration publicly support the responsibility of student publications/media to truthfully and accurately inform community citizens?
Yes No Don’t know (explain: __________________________________________________)