Adviser Update Spring 2016 | Page 26

PRESS RIGHT S MINUTE Private Schools, Public Rights Public school student journalists have a trump card — although it doesn’t always work. If the administration censors their student media, often they can point to the FIRST AMENDMENT and court cases like Tinker. These students have rights. John Bowen John Bowen, MJE, is an adjunct professor at Kent State, chair of Journalism Education Association (JEA) Scholastic Press Rights Commitee and former Dow Jones News Fund National Journalism Teacher of the Year. Bowen has been a member of the SPLC Board of Directors and convener of the SPLC Advisory Council and a high school journalism teacher and adviser. P and both all-girls’ schools. How were they able to convince their administrators to give them something they didn’t legally have to give? Thus when 11 schools became 2016 First Amendment Press Freedom Award-winners, the inclusion of two private schools in the list seemed like a bonus. Schools that receive this award first submit applications from one media adviser and editor. Those selected for the second round must submit questionnaires from the principal, plus advisers and editors for each student media outlet, all explaining how student free speech is practiced and promoted in their schools. Representatives of the Journalism Education Association, National Scholastic Press Association and Quill and Scroll International Honorary make up the selection committee. rivate school student journalists don’t have that option. In general, their administrators or school governance doesn’t need to offer free speech to them. As the fourth edition of Law of the Student Press says, “Because the First Amendment begins, ‘Congress shall make no law . . . ’ courts hold that only the government and those acting on the government’s behalf are constitutionally barred from denying a person the right to free speech.” Convent of the Sacred Heart, also a winner in 2014, and The Archer School for Girls are both in California Adviser Kristin Taylor and her two co-editors-in-chief pointed to several reasons the student journalists at Archer School for Girls are able to make content decisions for The Oracle, their online publication. Staffers for the Broadview at Convent of the Sacred Heart work together on material for their next publication. (photo by Tracy Anne Sena) Taylor had no journalism background and was “reluctant” when she agreed to oversee a journalism club five years ago. Now what started as “maybe five middle and upper school girls who met at lunch once a week” has grown into become a class and an award-winning news website. Administrators never did practice prior review, Taylor said, probably because it was a “low-key club” at first. But as she educated herself and then her girls in responsible and ethical journalism practices, they realized they needed policies the administration acknowledged and accepted. “By the time I really started to make it official, we had already built a foundation that this is a good and fair paper,” Taylor said. “It is fact-checked and reliable.” Syd Stone, co-editor-in-chief, described a meeting when the journalists invited all the administrators, including the head of school, to their journalism class one day and “educated them first” on the importance of media. “Then it became a conversation, where we openly talked about issues. Opening up the dialogue is really important,” she said.