BILL PROPOSES STUDENTS GET EDITORIAL CONTROL OF PAPERS

Legislation introduced in the Missouri House of Representatives would take editorial power away from school administrators and put it in the hands of student journalists.

State Rep. Joan Bray, D-St. Louis, again sponsored legislation restricting school administrators from prior review of student publications. Bray sponsored a similar bill last year that successfully made it past the House Judiciary Committee before dying on the floor. The bill is again assigned to the committee for hearings.

"I don't think that's ever going to be passed as a law," said Cape Girardeau School District Superintendent Dr. Dan Tallent. "I think most adults are responsible enough to know we have a responsibility to help mold students and their ideas."

House Bill 83 would allow public-school students to publish whatever material they wish in student publications and other communications media as long as such material is not obscene, libelous or slanderous, deemed an unwarranted invasion of privacy or otherwise incites students to commit unlawful acts.

An organized alliance of journalism groups, student-rights groups and the American Civil Liberties Union are lobbying for passage of the bill while school organizations like the School Administrators Coalition are encouraging members to contact their state representatives to oppose the measure.

Local public-school students, faculty and administrators believe HB 83 is unnecessary. The belief of most of these people is that the newspaper represents the school, and students have a responsibility not to print material that represents the school negatively.

"The school newspaper is an official statement -- or is seen as such -- of the school district," Jackson School District Superintendent Dr. Howard Jones said at a recent school board meeting. "For that reason the school needs to have editorial control over that document. It bothers me to see the ACLU making that an issue in our state."

Dawn Bollinger has been publications adviser of the Cape Girardeau Central Junior High School student newspaper, The Cub, for three years. She said students should be able to report certain topics as long as they handle them responsibly. However, she said, students need supervision because school newspapers are public-relations tools

"A lot of times your school newspapers are public relations tools while students are learning," Bollinger said. "You print the truth, but you do it in a good light. No newspaper prints exactly what they want; you have a publisher."

The School Administrators Coalition wrote in a bulletin to members that HB 83 created a "tempest in a teapot" regarding an administrator's editorial control. "Very few journalism classes are denied the right or opportunity to write, publish, or editorialize on news issues in Missouri public schools," editors stated in the bulletin.

The bulletin also said administrators should oppose the bill because it would eliminate supervision authority, would not exempt school districts, administrators or employees from civil or criminal liability, would establish a group of restricted actions for students that would lead to interpretation disputes, and would place responsibilities and pressures for final decisions on minor students who would in the end be censured by the community or peers.

Vicki Ventrella is a senior at Cape Girardeau Central High School and editor of The Tiger. She said a student publication represents its school, and there are some topics a student journalist doesn't need to cover. However, she said, if administrative review results in high levels of unsupported censorship in the state, then perhaps HB 83 is needed.

"I think if the administrator has that much of a problem and doesn't trust his adviser, then that is a problem because the adviser's the one that's trained, not the administrator," she said. "As long as (a story) is done tactfully and tastefully, and it's handled in a positive and factual manner, then I guess it should be OK."

Dr. Roy Keller, adviser for the Capaha Arrow student newspaper at Southeast Missouri State University, also said that the publications adviser, and not the administrator, should have editorial control over content.

"I believe it should be in the hands of the adviser because the adviser is the one trained to deal with journalism issues," Keller said. "By and large, the administrator is not. You can, of course, find untrained and ignorant advisers, but you can also find untrained administrators."

WHAT HB 83 SAYS

The measure restricts school administrators from prior review of student publications, would establish by statute that public-school students have the right to publish whatever material they wish in student publications and other communications media as long as such material is not obscene, libelous or slanderous, deemed to be an unwarranted invasion of privacy, or otherwise incites students to commit unlawful acts.