California Education Code 48907 (1977), also known as the California Student Free Expression Law, acts as a counter to the

Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ''Hazelwood School District et al. v. Kuhlmeier et al.'', 484 U.S. 260 (1988), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States that held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as forums ...

(1988) Supreme Court ruling, which limited the freedom of speech granted to public

high school newspapers High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

. The Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier decision held that public school curricular student newspapers that have not been established as "forums for student expression" are subject to a lower level of

First Amendment First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

protection than independent student expression or newspapers established (by policy or practice) as forums for student expression. Ed Code 48907 affirms the right of high school newspapers to publish whatever they choose, so long as the content isn't explicitly obscene, libelous, or slanderous, and doesn’t incite students to violate any laws or school regulations. The newspaper content must also pass the minimal disruption test set forth in the Supreme Court ruling on

Tinker v. Des Moines ''Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District'', 393 U.S. 503 (1969), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court that defined First Amendment rights of students in U.S. public schools. The ''Tinker'' test, also kn ...

(1969). In contrast with Hazelwood, which limited

protection to only those high school newspapers that had, through practice or policy, been established as forums for student expression, Ed Code 48907 affirms the right of all newspapers to the freedom of expression.

Background

Many public high schools provide for a school-funded newspaper, most often the product of a journalism class taken for credit. As a recent Legal News Advisory issued by the

California Department of Education The California Department of Education is an agency within the Government of California that oversees public education. The department oversees funding and testing, and holds local educational agencies accountable for student achievement. Its st ...

noted, these newspapers exist mainly to teach students the elements of journalism and to supplement the language arts curriculum. However, the same advisory also noted that students have a legitimate interest in the full expression of their own ideas on topics of concern, even when those ideas are in conflict with or are critical of those of the school or the majority of the public. Following the landmark Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines, which asserted that students do not lose their free speech protections in school, students are allowed a degree of freedom of expression in school, even if these rights are justifiably less than those experienced out of the classroom. However, the 1974 study commissioned by the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, ''Captive Voices'', found that

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

and the systematic lack of freedom to engage in open, responsible journalism characterize high school journalism. This study, which examined censorship issues, minority participation and journalism education, and the commercial media's involvement with scholastic journalism, also found that censorship of journalism is a matter of policy in all areas of the country despite legal protections that override such censorship. Importantly, the issue of

self-censorship Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or insti ...

was found to have created passivity among students and made them cynical about the guarantees of a free press under the First Amendment. As a counter to these suppressions and as a reaction to Tinker v. Des Moines, California became the first state in the United States to enact a statutory scheme that protected the free speech rights of students. These protections were codified in Educational Code 10611. In 1977, the California Legislature rewrote this code and replaced it with Educational Code 48907. This revision was prompted by Bright v. Los Angeles Unified School District (1976), in which the

California Supreme Court The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...

found that Educational Code 10611 did not authorize

prior restraint Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government or institution, on expression, that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship ...

, and thus that a school could only discipline a student for violation of a publications rule or prohibit further distribution. However, Educational Code 10611 was not completely clear, and thus the Legislature replaced it with the current statute, 48907, which now states that prior restraint is allowed only when student expression violates the specific prohibitions of Section 48907.

Text

The main text of the Code is as follows:

Specific provisions

School authorities can only prohibit publication of stories in school newspapers if they are obscene, libelous, slanderous, or likely to incite others to commit illegal or disruptive acts. Additionally, school districts may not censor, even if the above conditions are met, if the district has not adopted in written form rules and regulations including reasonable provisions for the time, place, and manner in which issues of censorship may be addressed or settled. Thus, even if material falls within the realm of obscene, defamatory, illegal, or disruptive, all reasonable restrictions on school newspapers, school officials may not censor student material simply because no written school district regulations governing publications exist. Also, a school district rule which generally prohibits such potentially sensitive topics as pregnancy and divorce is not permitted by the statute. In issues of school liability, often stemming from libel or defamation lawsuits, the majority opinion in Leeb v. DeLong 1988 stated that to impose a prior restraint requires the article to contain a "false statement ... likely to harm the reputation of another..." and cannot be allowed "to hinge on the subjective pique" of a prospective plaintiff. This again holds the school to a high level of free speech protection before being allowed to censor.Crosby, P.J
Leeb v. DeLong (1988) 198 Cal.App.3d 47 , 243, Cal.Rptr. 494
31 May 2008. Additionally, Leeb v. Delong holds that a lack of "professional standards of English and journalism" is not justification for prior restraint; post-publication responses are the only way to maintain these standards.

Recent usage

This policy and Education Code 48907 was supported by the case ''Smith v. Novato Unified School District'' (2007). A California Court of Appeal found that school unlawfully disciplined by condemning a controversial editorial as a violation of school policy and stating it should not have been published. The editorial, titled "Immigration," contained extremely controversial statements about illegal immigrants. The principal, soon after the newspaper's release, ordered that all remaining copies of the newspaper no longer distributed. Smith sued the school district, and the Marin County Superior Court ruled against him; however, the First District Court of Appeal reversed the decision, stating that Code 48907 prohibits schools from censoring speech simply "because it presents controversial ideas and opponents of the speech are likely to cause disruption."Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District, Division Five. Brief of Amici Curiae In Support of Andrew D. Smith and Dale R. Smith. < splc.org/pdf/novato_amicus.pdf>

References

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External links

California Student Free Expression Law
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