popular law as a blueprint , I tried again . I contacted Frank LoMonte , executive director of the Student Press Law Center , to make certain he was willing to work for a law in Maryland . He was more than supportive .
To introduce a bill in the legislature , you need a sponsor . Luckily for scholastic journalism in Maryland , State Senator Jamie Raskin ( D ) had recently risen to the post of majority whip . As a professor of constitutional law at American University , Raskin had twice volunteered to represent high schools suffering censorship in the state and literally wrote the book on student rights : “ We the Students : Supreme Court Cases For and About Students .” After an email to his office explaining what we wanted to do and discussing the North Dakota victory , Raskin expressed interest . A series of communications followed about the possibility of a bill . We sent him every free press law that had been enacted . By late summer , Senator Raskin agreed to sponsor our bill .
With a sponsor in place , it quickly became clear that I knew next to nothing about getting a bill written and passed . The Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association represents all of the daily newspapers and most
of the non-daily newspapers in our region and had recently gotten more involved in scholastic journalism . Rebecca Snyder , the executive director of their foundation , immediately volunteered to work in support of our bill .
While you can get any bill with a sponsor introduced , without someone at the capital lobbying on behalf of the bill , your legislation can easily fall through the cracks . Part of MDDCPA ’ s stated mission is to provide “ legislative representation , and First Amendment issues .” Snyder took that commitment very seriously , adding the New Voices Maryland Act to the other bills she was working for at the state house .
GARY CLITES
Sen . Jamie Raskin , Press Association director Rebecca Snyder , journalist Karen Houppert and SPLC director Frank LoMonte testifying on March 2 in support of a student press freedom bill before the Senate . ( Rebecca Snyder obscured ).
Gary Clites , MJE , advises The Patriot Press newsmagazine and WNHS-TV at Northern High School in Owings , Maryland . He holds degrees in journalism from WVU and the University of Maryland . He has been a columnist for the Dow Jones News Fund ’ s Adviser Update for 20 years . Clites has a CSPA Gold Key and was a 2004 DJNF Distinguished Adviser . He is acting president of the Maryland-D . C . Scholastic Press Association .
I can honestly say that our bill would probably not have passed without her support . She lobbied legislators in both houses on its behalf . She testified before both the Senate and House committees . Most importantly , when opposition arose to the bill , she worked to squash it . When a representative threatened to stall it on the House floor based on a misunderstanding regarding what the bill would do , she got a legal finding to show the representative that his concerns were not valid . He dropped his opposition .
Frank LoMonte and I worked to build other support for the bill . Dean Lucy Dalglish of the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland put the college ’ s support behind the bill . We contacted literally every newspaper in the state asking them to write editorials in support leading to numerous articles just as the bill reached the Senate . LoMonte wrote a great op-ed piece that was published in The Baltimore Sun .
We also worked to engage teachers , parents and students in the effort . At our Fall J-Day at the University of Maryland , Frank LoMonte and I presented a session for advisers to inform them about the act . Before lobbying for the bill began , we contacted journalism teachers across the state to gather stories of the censorship they ’ d faced . The most chilling part of this entire process for me was the number of teachers who were willing to tell us their stories , but who were afraid to go on the record ( even when we offered