HyperDoc
Your school newspaper is established as an Open Public Forum with a Statement of Purpose that reads as follows:
The Warrior Ledger and The Warrior Ledger Online will be referred to together as Taylorsville High School Media. Both media programs serve the community, faculty and student body of Taylorsville High School as an Open Public Forum for freedom of expression as established by the First Amendment. The adviser and staff members strive to report school news and issues professionally and with a focus on journalistic integrity and credibility while maintaining concordance with the Taylorsville High School Mission Statement.
SCENARIO:
In your most recent issue there is an article covering the issue of hazing at the school. The reporter did a thorough job and practiced good journalism in writing the story. In the story a few of the star football players are named for hazing and a particular incident is reported in detail. When the principal reads the articles, he has all of the papers (that have already been distributed) confiscated and refuses to allow them to be distributed to the student body. The editors of the paper claim the administration is in violation of First Amendment rights.
After completing this assignment, you will need to decide if you believe the editors of The Warrior Ledger would win their First Amendment case in Utah or if the ruling would be in favor of the administration and why.
Student Press Law Center
Go to the Student Press Law Center website and look around the site. What is the purpose of this site, what tools does it offer, and how could you use it as a student journalist? Add your notes to the first question here.
High School FAQs
Read through the High School FAQs page. Choose ONE question and response that is the most relevant to our scenario, copy/paste it into your Google Form here, and add a response as to why you feel this question and answer is particularly helpful.
Utah Cases
Search the web to see if you can find any First Amendment cases in Utah involving high school journalism. List anything that you find here.
Hazelwood or Tinker?
Learn more about the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier case here and the Tinker v. Des Moines case here.
Then, use the graphic below to decide if the Tinker or Hazelwood standards apply to our school and online publication. Justify your answer in your notes.
What's your verdict?
Take a look at our initial scenario. Based on what you learned, who would win this case? Do you think Hazelwood or Tinker would prevail in a case like that? Do you think the case would be different in different states in the country?
Add your answers to this Padlet and add comments on whether you agree or disagree and why to at least two other comments from class members.