On Tuesday the United States Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a case involving the right of college student journalists to criticize school administrators in student publications. The Court's failure to hear the appeal means that administrators at public universities in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin (and most likely the rest of the nation since the Supremes have now left the earlier Seventh Circuit decision in place) can now legally censor the student press.
This is a frightening development in the de-evolution of student speech rights. The Supreme Court in its silence has now consented to allowing the horrific Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision of 1988 (the decision that legitimized administrative censorship of high school students) apply to college students. For more background on the history of student speech rights (especially at the K-12 level), see my "Administrative Regulation of Student Expression."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
The fact that the administrators now legally _have_ the power to censor the college student press is as damaging as them actually _using_ that power. Just having the power creates a "chilling effect" that could make students think twice before publishing something the administration might be offended by. --Tony
Post a Comment