Student media outlets continue to fight censorship

Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. In this 1988 case, the Supreme Court decided that schools may restrict what is published in student newspapers if the papers are not public forums. The court also decided that schools can limit First Amendment rights of students if the student speech goes against the school’s mission.

Censorship is most prevalent in high school newspapers, an example being the recent “pause” by school board leaders on the Viking Saga in Northwest Public School in Nebraska after it covered two LGBTQ+ stories.

In another example, a Los Angeles teacher refused to censor a student’s article and was suspended. The suspension has since been lifted. The censorship case which led to the Hazelwood School District decision happened in 1983, when Cathy Kuhlmeir was in high school.

prejudice and are targeted with hate crimes, hate-speech, or any sort of bias and false information,” said Kevin Thomas, a senior journalism major at UT. “The censoring of fake news works to stop the spread of misinformation. However, censorship in classrooms shouldn’t be ideal.”

Michael Martinez, assistant professor of practice in journalism, has taught about censorship extensively in his classes, particularly his media law class.

“I think society has gotten more conservative as far as trying to censor voices. They’re trying to get people to shut up and not talk about it – ‘they’ meaning the administration and ‘it’ being controversial issues in general,” Martinez said. “But there’s also been a lot of fights to push back against censorship and many times it’s been successful.” alumni, Banks decided to allow the newspaper to continue printing weekly until the end of the semester. The paper’s most recent print issue was published on Feb. 16.

The fight, however, does not always come from just students, alumni, or faculty, according to Martinez.

“When the University of Memphis defunded their student publication, because the administration didn’t like what they were writing about, the newspaper industry in general came to their aid and pointed out that just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it’s not valuable. It’s good journalism – what they’re writing,” Martinez said.

In fact, according to journalism student Megan Trivette, professors are supportive of students reporting on the “whole” story.

With the fifth annual Student Press Freedom Day approaching on Feb. 23, the time has come again to look into censorship in student media and what students can and cannot do when reporting.

Though the First Amendment guarantees the right to freedom and speech and freedom of the press, student journalists are much more limited than professional journalists, due to

Luckily, college students are less likely to face censorship than high school students, but they are often victims of budget cuts (which have affected papers such as those at University of Memphis and Wesleyan University), an indirect form of censorship.

Though less likely to face censorship, journalism students spend ample time pondering censorship in schools, no matter the level of education in question.

“Censorship can be good when it’s out of protection for groups who already are facing

A successful retaliation against censorship is the L.A. teacher, Adriana Chavira, who refused to censor her students’ work and successfully fought back against the suspension she faced.

College publications are not immune to direct action by administrators. Texas A&M’s student newspaper, the Battalion, was told by the university’s president, M. Katherine Banks, that they would stop print in February of 2022.

The student newspaper’s print was meant to be suspended immediately upon Banks’ request, but after backlash from students and

“I really don’t think that the professors have had an impact on censorship, in fact a lot of them really encourage us to go out and get the full story,” Trivette said. “We really are provided with the opportunity to write what we want to write.”

In reality, the state of censorship in the United States and particularly in universities is constantly fluctuating and must be taken on a case-by-case basis. The question is the same as it has always been: “What can newspapers say? What is the line?” but the answer continues to change.