A TRYING YEAR FOR THE PROTECTION OF STUDENT JOURNALISM
By Sachi Akmal, Marvin Ridge High
Amid the hustle of the school year’s end at West Broward High in Florida, the yearbook staff was busy distributing the product that was their pride and joy to the rest of the student body. A culmination of a whole year’s worth of dedication, the $90 hardcover was being exchanged and signed, read and shared. That is until administration unexpectedly halted the book’s distribution to review concerns that arose about a two-page spread on the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We were censored for a weekend and almost a full school day, and that’s not something that should be happening to a student-run publication,” Elise Twitchell, co-editor-in-chief of the yearbook, told CNN.
“We just feel that this is an attack on our non-white student body, and it’s just a slap in the face to my students who have worked hard in the yearbook. It’s a slap in the face to obviously the First Amendment and to journalism,” David Fleischer, West Broward teacher and yearbook adviser, added.
Sommer Ingram Dean, a staff attorney at the Student Press Law Center in Washington, D.C., has witnessed similar incidents happen across the country. She recently spoke at the annual press conference of the N.C. Scholastic Media Institute, an event which included an audience of student journalists.
Dean mentioned that it was typical for the SPLC to get student legal inquiries from April to June while publications get finalized, but censorship issues had been most prevalent this year, especially regarding the Black Lives Matter movement.
“To ignore something that has sort of rocked our nation the way that it has, would be irresponsible and really sort of anti-everything that good journalism should be,” Dean said. “Like I said, this is something that has been coming up a lot in different ways. And I think that now is more important than ever for student journalists to feel like you guys have the power to be reporting on these things that have changed our communities.”
Earlier this month, the SPLC released a joint statement with the Journalism Education Association and National Scholastic Press Association. Part of the statement reads, “Racism in our communities and the fight against it is a newsworthy topic by any journalistic standard and should be included in all yearbooks around the country. Including it is not a political decision or a matter of viewpoint but rather an application of news values students learn in every introductory journalism course.”
“That statement was really just meant to sort of serve as solidarity for student journalists,” Dean said. “We’re seeing that student journalism is not a luxury. Student journalism is a necessity. We need you guys to be reporting these stories because you’re closest to them. There are student journalists that, as I’m sure you know, break all kinds of important stories, whether it’s about COVID outbreaks in their community, whether it’s about teachers or other school officials that don’t have the right certification to be holding the job that they do. You guys are doing such important work and our job at SPLC is really to support you in that and make you feel confident in the work that you’re doing.”
Distribution of the West Broward High yearbook resumed after the weekend, but all copies now contain a school-approved insert that states, “Please note that as a governmental agency, the School Board of Broward County, must maintain a neutral stance on all political views. As such, any political views expressed in the 2021 West Broward yearbook are not sponsored by the District.”
Although still considered an affront by many in the Broward County community, there have been cases of more extreme censorship of student publications.
Dean shared an astounding call the SPLC received earlier this year. “Basically, there were complaints about the yearbook. I think it was more than just Black Lives Matter, but just different content in the yearbook. The school administrators took over, got a different yearbook publishing company and made a yearbook themselves and didn’t use any of the content or the spreads or anything from the actual student journalists,” Dean said.
“So that, to myself and the other members of the legal team, is a very extreme case of censorship. Like I said, I’ve never seen a school administration sort of take over and come up with their own publication and still put the students’ name on it. I don’t know that that one has been discussed publicly, but I think that they’re trying to come up with a game plan for how they want to approach (the administration).”
However, there is state legislation on the horizon that could change the game for student journalists by making them more confident to report on issues that matter without fear of unwarranted repercussions.
“New Voices legislation is state by state legislation that is meant to strengthen the rights of student journalists,” Dean said. “We have about 14 states that have passed laws similar to this. Sometimes they’re called Student Freedom of Expression Laws. It takes power away from school officials who may have a different agenda and puts it back in the hands of student journalists.”
But Dean cautioned students about using that freedom. “The legislation isn’t meant to sort of give you, as a student journalist, a free pass. You’ve still got to practice responsible journalism. The legislation does prohibit all the things that are unprotected speech out in the real world. Anyway, it’s a great tool and we’re hopeful that more states will pass this kind of law,” she said.