School appeals court decision that allow s distributiol1 of religiou s paper ll..LINOIS A school dis trict is appealing a federal Court decision that would al Iow a student to distribute a -
religious publication on cam pus. The Wauconda Commu nity Unit School District has been trying to prevent stu dent Megan Hedges from handing out a religious leaf let. lssuu and Answers, at her junior high school since 1 990. The publication is not affiliated wilh the school or published by its students. [n the earlier court deci sion. Judge Paul E. Plunkett ruled that the school's policy of prohibiting distribution was "unreasonable," but af ftmled the idea that the school is a "closed forum ," subject to regulation by the adminis tration.
In their appeal , the school district has argued that pro hibiting dislIibution of out side publications is appro priate because certain orga nizations may use students to funher theiragenda on school
grounds. The district also ar gued that students might wrongly think those publica tions are sanctioned by the schooL But in a friend-of-the-court brief. the Student Press Law
Center argued lhat the school is an open, public forum for the students and that regulat ing student expression is un constitutional prior restrainL S i nce the publication would not create a substan Lia\ disruption of school ac tivities or an invasion of the rights of others, its distribu tion should be unfettered, the SPLC brief said. The case may hinge on the coutCs rulingon the school 's forwn staUlS. If the court decides the school is a closed forum for student expression. school adm inisttators will have more power to limit independent student publicatioos. Hedges first brought the case as a 13-year-old. She has since left the school. •
Students stop principal 's censorship FLORIDA
Student journalists at Tarpon Springs High School found an unlikely ally against censorship the county school superintendent Staf'f members of The S�rif, the stu dent newspaper, had theirflJ'StencoUfl ter with censorship in April when their principal,John Nicely, told them not to print an anicle abouta petition that was circulating against a teacher. Student Meri dith Brown. who was then the editor, looked at the school's code of conduct and saw that the prin cipal only had the authority to censor the paper in case of obscene material, libel or writing that would cause " a substantial disruption of school activi ties," She did not believe the anicle fell -
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22 SPlC Report
under any of those categories, and wrote Nicely a letter as1cing that he inform her ofhis reasons for wanting to cut the story. According to Ken Henderson, the paper 's adviser, Nicely did not reply for about three weelcs. Instead, Nicely said he wanted to see the StDry. Henderson said. After he read the article, he told the stu· dents he did not want it to run because it would "belittle or degrade" the student and teacher involved. At that point. Henderson said, "We couldeiLher let it go orchoose to fight it" Theychose to fight. Brown wrote a memo about why she wanted it to run and sent it to Nicely , and then he
delivered a written leuer about why she could not run we story. She then filed an official appeal and sent a copy to the area superintendent, Henderson said. "Within two days the superinten dent called the office and told her she could publish it," he said. Henderson said lhe superintendent was concerned that the school code be followed. even though he sympa thized wi th the principal's position of trying to protect the reputation of the school and its teachers. "It was a major victory for [the studentsl," Henderson said. '"It was the rust time (Nicely] had come in (Su TARPON, POt#. 23)
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