Hazelwood @ 30

This year, 2018, marks 30 years since the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision was handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The SPLC is leading the call throughout the year to raise awareness about the Hazelwood decision, publicize its destructive legacy and focus on the need for New Voices legislation to protect student journalists’ rights.

The Hazelwood Day of Action on Jan. 31 kicked off #CureHazelwood activities and collaborations throughout the nation. Your ideas and initiatives made it a success.

Highlights of the day included:

• A wrap-up of the day’s events across the country.
• Hazelwood: Then and Now — our Hazelwood-themed monthly webinar
• Facebook Live contributions from advocates, students and attorneys fighting the good fight against Hazelwood.
  • • Cathy Kuhlmeier Frey of Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier (part one | part two)
    • SPLC Executive Director Hadar Harris
    • John Tinker of Tinker v. Des Moines
    • SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Frank LoMonte
    • Melissa Gomez, student at University of Florida
    • Lindsie Trego, student at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
    • SPLC Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestand
    • Mary Beth Tinker of Tinker v. Des Moines
    • Shine Cho, student at University of California San Diego
    • Sophie Gordon, student at Ball State University
    • Tanvi Kumar, student at George Washington Unviersity

Ideas for action throughout 2018

• Post your anti-censorship message to Twitter and Instagram using #CureHazelwood and tagging @SPLC
• Create and distribute T-shirts that spur discussion about Hazelwood and/or censorship (slogans like: “Ask Me About Hazelwood” or “No Hazelwood, No Censorship”).
• Distribute stickers or buttons with Hazelwood–related messages.
• Plan a rally.
• Publish an op-ed piece or other article in local or student media.
• Host a guest speaker (see below for virtual speakers).
• Host a “No Censorship” bake sale to support your local student publication and distribute information about the “Cure Hazelwood” campaign (maybe even sell Cure Hazelwood bracelets too.)
• See if you have a New Voices movement in your state and coordinate activities with it.
• Create a video-journal where students (and maybe advisers) can tell their censorship story.
• Distribute informational flyers to your student body at lunch time to educate them about Hazelwood and censorship.
• Check out and share SPLC’s Hazelwood Day of Action events.
• What’s your idea?  Send it to us so we can expand the list!

Tell us about your event

Resources

• How to contact officials in your state to express your views on New Voices legislation:
  • • State Legislators
    • State Governors
• The New Voices movement: a grassroots push for student free expression rights
• SPLC model legislation to protect student free expression rights
• What is the Hazelwood ruling?
• Why is the Hazelwood ruling hazardous to student media and campus free expression?
• Tinker: a better standard 
• Hear the oral arguments in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988)
• Hear the oral arguments in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
• Students identify with 50-year-old Supreme Court case (January 2018)
• Hear an interview with siblings Mary Beth and John Tinker  (December 2017)
• C-SPAN Landmark Cases program about Tinker v. Des Moines (April 2018)

More from our anti-Hazelwood allies:

Journalism Education Association:

• Statements about free expression
• JEA Scholastic Press Rights Committee

National Council of Teachers of English:

• Hazelwood and students’ right to write

Stories about Hazelwood @ 30

• Give young journalists protections from school censorship, via Seattle Times
• Student journalists deserve your support, via The Independent Florida Alligator
• Continuing the fight against censorship, via Saint Joseph University’s The Hawk
• Restoring journalists’ First Amendment rights at the school door, via The Nevada Appeal
• The Schoolhouse Gates, via Legal Talk Network
• Hazelwood: 30 Years Later, via Liberty High School Today
• Students deserve equal rights, via Scottsbluff Star Herald
• Student journalists fight for their First Amendment rights with Hazelwood day of action, via GCAAToday
• In print we trust, via The Muhlenberg Weekly

Purchase a Cure Hazelwood bracelet

Show your support for efforts to reverse the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. (Available in sets of 5, 10, 15 and 25 bracelets.)

Visit store.

Images for your use:

Download these images and use them when you share your censorship story on social media, or for flyers for your events.

See more images.