What is the free press status in your state?

After finding the status of legal protections in their state, students will examine these and learn about their governing policies and guidelines that impact them.

Quill and Scroll Guiding Principles:

Truth, Learning, Leadership, Loyalty, Initiative, Integrity, Judgment

Materials: 

Set up:

Have the SPLC information ready.

Also, see if a school board policy or guideline exists. These are normally in the 400 number area of policies and guidelines.

Step-by-step instructions:

  1. What is the status of the free press in your school and state? 
  2. Are you one of the 18 states with laws that protect student journalists? (If you need a primer on these, SPLC has a great resource.) 
  3. Are there school board level policies or guidelines?
  4. Do you have media-level policies and guidelines at your school? What is the role of the student press? (See this JEA SPRC resource for help if needed.)
  5. Why is it important to know the status of this?
  6. If you have a board-level policy that isn’t student media friendly loop in your adviser. Should the student media groups work to counter this guideline? 
  7. If you don’t have state legislation in place, is there a movement to pass this in your state? Was there one previously? How can students become involved in the movement?
  8. Why is this discussion so important?

If clarification is needed after this, SPLC has information on the status. If students feel they need help because of censorship, they should contact SPLC (not the adviser).

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