By Sarah Sheafer
<[email protected]>

As 6,300 student journalists and advisers piled into the room, there was a mixture of excitement and nerves. From Nov. 12 to 15, students from all 50 states, England, South Korea and Germany came to participate in the JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in Washington, D.C. It was the award ceremony night, and many young journalists were eager to see their publication’s name flash onto the large screen over the stage.

However, before any of this took place, the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit organization that gives legal assistance and educates student journalists about their First Amendment rights, gave a couple of special awards. Barb Thill, former adviser of The Statesman at Stevenson High School in Illinois, received the SPLC’s Courage in Student Journalism Award, which commends those who advocate and support free press rights for students.

Thill’s acceptance speech, while short, grabbed my attention. Here was an award-winning newspaper whose voice was being suppressed by its school’s administration. Back in January, the newspaper printed a package of articles that localized a New York Times article, covering the phenomenon of casual alcohol-fueled “hook-ups.” Because of the articles, the school’s administration started exercising prior review. In protest, Thill resigned from her position as journalism adviser.

I thought the SPLC award would encourage the administration to loosen its control over the newspaper, but just last month, The Statesman came under fire again. After the school warned the editor of the newspaper not to print a story about honor students doing drugs, drinking and getting pregnant, administrators threatened that editor when they started asking her for the names of the anonymous student sources. This led the editor to submit a blank front page with a note explaining the situation. Because of this, the administration banned the newspaper edition and forced the publication to print “approved” stories or else fail the course.

As a member of the HiLite, I feel as if I’ve been spoiled. Because our administration is wise enough not to practice prior restraint or review, it was hard for me to grasp why The Statesman was being suppressed. It seems that Stevenson High School cares more about its image than the truth. It’s worried that these articles would taint the school’s appearance. When in reality, as is the case, honest, accurate, responsible journalism, even if some stories cover less than savory issues, put a school in a much more favorable light in the end. Ironically, what Stevenson’s administration has done by suppressing its students’ voices and supposedly keeping the school’s reputation clean is to soil that very reputation by its blatant censorship.

The 1988 Supreme Court case Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier allowed public school officials to limit some content that appears in school-sponsored student publications. However, censoring must justify an educational purpose and cannot be unreasonable or based on personal opinion. I’m not saying the decision at Stevenson High School was wrong; Administrators at Stevenson and elsewhere must realize that it’s being interpreted incorrectly.

If students can never practice their First Amendment rights, how will they ever learn to exercise them out of high school? If administrations continue to practice prior review or restraint, then students will begin to self-censor. They will become so fearful of what might happen to their newspaper, that they’ll refrain from writing articles that should be told.

For administrators who think this issue isn’t important, let them bear witness to 6,300 students and their advisers as proof. Who cares? Well, this shouldn’t be a question, but if they might ask, then our answer is “We do.” More importantly, our readers care and should care that they have a voice in this community.