State Rep. Brent Yonts, D-Greenville, has prefiled a bill for the 2009 session of the Kentucky General Assembly that would protect the rights of student journalists and their teachers/advisers in Kentucky.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1988′s Hazelwood decision that high school newspapers were not usually considered forums for student expression. As such, such publications have often not received the same First Amendment rights and protections enjoyed by their professional counterparts. As such, student publications have often been subject to censorship by school officials. And student newspaper advisers have sometimes been forced to resign or be reassigned to other duties when they failed to give in to the demands of school officials when some controversial editorial content has been involved.

 But seven states have passed their own laws to ensure that student journalists and their advisers are protected. Now such a bill has been proposed for Kentucky. Although it’s a long way from being enacted, this is a wonderful first start – and my hat is off to Western Kentucky University student Josh Moore who got the ball rolling by contacting Rep. Yonts and asking him to sponsor such legislation. Josh contacted KHSJA a few months ago and we also communicated with Rep. Yonts and encouraged him to sponsor this needed piece of legislation.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 9:09 am and is filed under Membership, journalism and more. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.