Filed under News, Showcase, State Campaigns, State Tracker, Video, Voices of the Movement
New Voices State Tracker
Back to Article
Back to Article
New Voices State Tracker
Advertisement
Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like.
Email This Story
New Voices USA is a network of state-by-state campaigns to pass anti-censorship legislation that will grant extra protections to student journalists. The movement is inspired by the success in North Dakota, where in 2015, the state legislature unanimously passed a bill that ensures the free-speech rights of journalism students in public schools and colleges. The Student Press Law Center tracks state-by-state laws and pending campaigns.
I was wondering if I could use the map in my story which is about the New Voice Legislation.
Absolutely!
Is this current as of April 6, 2017?
Please change the Green Mountain State to Green.
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott signed the bill this week. (We are no longer blue!) Thank you legislature and Governor.
Hello,
I am the adviser of a SNO middle school newspaper in Orange County, California. Do these laws also protect middle school reporters? I just had my principal inform me that the superintendent has stated for the first time that the questions any reporter may have for board members need to be sent to him first. What are my protections as a middle school journalism adviser in California?
The law in California applies to “pupils of the public schools” at all levels. http://www.splc.org/article/1977/02/california-student-free-expression-law-includes-adviser-protection-provision Please send us a message at director@splc.org or encourage your students to do so. If your students directly contact school board members, as is their legal right, the school cannot legally take any adverse action either against you for “refusing to censor” them or against the students. SPLC often writes letters to school districts to help them understand the law and this may be the right situation for such a letter. But please correspond with confidentially using that splc.org email and fill us in on the back-story that led to this order from the superintendent. Thank you for getting in touch!
So does this new bill overturn the previous case law Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al 484 U.S. 260?
What the bills do is create a STATE-protected right that supplements students’ federally protected rights (which, after Hazelwood, are not very protected). So Hazelwood is still on the books, but in a state with a New Voices law, students (and fired advisers) do not have to rely on the federal First Amendment to protect themselves, because they can rely on state law instead. States give people more than the bare minimum of constitutional rights all the time. So that’s how the laws work — they don’t exactly “overrule” Hazelwood, but they make Hazelwood irrelevant.
I have started a campaign in Ohio. How do I registrar with this web site? I am very passionate about student free speech.
So glad to hear from you! Message me at flomonte@splc.org and we’ll start working together, including setting up an Ohio section on the website and creating an Ohio Facebook page. Thanks, we think Ohio very much ought to be a New Voices state.
Is there a legislative champion for a New Voices law in Connecticut? Also, has this law backfired in any schools, with a student paper publishing racist, homophobic, misogynist, or other hateful stories?
To answer the second question, we’re aware of no instances in which a student has cited a New Voices law to insist on a “right” to publish personal attacks, and the law has plenty of latitude for an administrator to withhold material on the grounds that it would substantially disrupt school operations or incite violations of the law. So a column that said “let’s all beat up [members of a certain minority]” would most certainly remain legally unprotected speech and a New Voices law would have no effect at all on a school’s ability to change or remove it. But in our experience, that’s not at all how student journalists use their freedom. They take their publications quite seriously, and in fact, when they’re censored it’s often because they’re calling for MORE tolerance toward members of minority groups and the school is influenced by the bigotry of a few vocal community members to censor the speech.
We would love to see a movement take hold in Connecticut, and if you’d like to get in touch to get involved, the best contact is Diana Mitsu Klos, dmk@splc.org.
Hi, I was wondering why the Hazelwood case decision does not hold precedence over the state level New Voices statutes. Because the Hazelwood case was brought to the U.S. supreme court, shouldn’t it hold precedence? I am so thankful to live in California where New Voices legislation has existed for a long time, but I am writing an article about the movement and I am a little confused. Thank you!
Great question. A state can always give its citizens added protection above-and-beyond what federal law requires. Hazelwood basically told states “you must give your students at least this much First Amendment protection,” but states (or districts) are free to go above that minimum; they just can’t go below. So that’s why a state anti-Hazelwood law is effective.
I would like to use this graphic in a textbook I am working on, titled “Beyond the Basics: Feature Storytelling for the Digital Age.” Whom may I speak with about getting permission?