IP: CENSORED STUDENTS POST THEIR EXPOSES ONLINE: Edupage, September 20 2000

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

Funny how we teach our kids about freedom and the bill of rights djf

>High-school students frustrated by the editorial policies of
>their schools' newspapers are publishing their pieces of
>suppressed or "alternative" journalism on the Internet.  Students
>now publish more than 10,000 underground high-school newspapers
>on the Internet, according to the Student Press Law Center.  In
>many cases, these papers print stories that high school papers
>would not run.  Some tend toward gossip or ranting, while others
>are little more than an excuse to mock educators and fellow
>students. Educators worry that even "serious" underground student
>newspapers could be damaging because the students publishing them
>have no one to advise them on the basics of journalism, including
>libel issues. In one case, a Milford, Utah, high school suspended
>a student after it deemed his Web page a threat to students and
>teachers. Criminal charges against that student were dropped,
>however, and courts have generally ruled in favor of a student's
>right to free speech outside of a classroom.
>(Washington Post, September 19 2000)