Freedom of Speech in School-Sponsored Media This Act establishes general criteria to protect student journalists in public schools or public colleges from censure by school or college officials because of the content of schoolsponsored or school-affiliated media such as student newspapers, and regardless of whether such media is funded by the school or produced on school property. Generally, in order to censure, school or college officials must prove that publishing the material in question will produce “a material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation” of the school or college. Submitted as: Oregon Chapter 763 (HB 3279) Status: Enacted into law in 2007. Suggested State Legislation (Title, enacting clause, etc.) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Section 1. [Short Title.] This Act shall be cited as “An Act to Prevent Libelous, Slanderous, or Other Unlawful Speech in School Media.” Section 2. [Definitions.] As used in this Act: (a) “Public High School” means a school as defined under [insert citation]; (b) “Public Institution of Higher Education” means: (I) a community college; or (II) a state institution of higher education as defined under [insert citation]; (c) “School-sponsored media” means materials that are prepared, substantially written, published or broadcast by student journalists, that are distributed or generally made available, either free of charge or for a fee, to members of the student body and that are prepared under the direction of a student media adviser. “School-sponsored media” does not include media intended for distribution or transmission solely in the classrooms in which they are produced. (d) “Student journalist” means a public high school student or a student enrolled in a public institution of higher education who gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs, records or prepares information for dissemination in school sponsored media. (e) “Student media adviser” means a person who is employed, appointed or designated by a school district or the public institution of higher education to supervise, or provide instruction relating to, school-sponsored media. Section 3. [Rights of Student Journalists.] (1) Except as provided in subsection (3) of this section, student journalists have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press in school-sponsored media, whether or not the media are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities or are produced in conjunction with a class. (2) Student journalists are responsible for determining the news, opinion and feature content of school-sponsored media subject to the limitations of subsection (3) of this section. This subsection does not prevent a student media adviser from teaching professional standards of English and journalism to the student journalists. (3) Nothing in this section may be interpreted to authorize expression by students that: 77
