School Newspaper Legal Issue

Our office is currently working on a case on behalf of a school board member in Indiana.  Their school newspaper, which is the official school publication, published an article regarding student sexual activity.  The article was explicit and graphic in nature, and it even went so far as to name individual students who engaged in sexual activity.  Teachers were so shocked by the article that many refused to distribute the schools newspaper.  The principal said there was nothing he could do to prevent the articles publication.  We were contacted by a school board member who was outraged over this incident, and we immediately assigned one of our staff counsel to work on this case. 

The Supreme Court has recognized that an official school newspaper allows editorial discretion by school officials.  In fact, we would assert that it was inappropriate to call out individual students by name and describe this activity in the explicit detail in which they did.  The irony in this, of course, is that if a student were to write an article talking about their faith in Jesus, it would be immediately censored by many school districts around the country.  However, in this case, where the topic of the school newspaper was sexual activity and the text was graphic in nature, you would think that the school would have exercised appropriate discretion and not allowed the article to run.  It is unconstitutional to void student-initiated speech solely on religious grounds.  There is nothing wrong, however, with allowing school officials to have proper authority and discretion to make sure inappropriate and graphic material (of the nature discussed in this article) not be distributed.

We will keep everyone updated as this case develops.  There is a school board hearing on Monday, and we anticipate a follow-up school board hearing in the next several weeks.