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Washington state House of Representatives approves free student press bill
Bill now moves to Washington state Senate for consideration
March 13, 2007
Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Des
Moines) introduced the bill, HB 1307, in January to provide protection to both
high school and college students from censorship, prior review and declare
student editors solely responsible for content.
The bill would be the
first law to protect both high school and college journalists under one statue.
Arkansas, California, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa and Massachusetts currently have
laws supporting high school press freedom and California has a law supporting
the college press.
Brian Schraum, a student at Washington State
University, spearheaded the bill's creation after the 2005 Seventh U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals decision in Hosty v. Carter, which said public college
administrators in three Midwestern states had the ability to censor some student
publications.
After approval from the House Judiciary Committee in
February, the bill was passed to the Rules Committee for review, where it was
also approved for floor vote.
Four amendments to the bill were proposed
to the bill, including one by Rep. Jay Rodne (R-North Bend) to exclude high
school students from the bill, which was rejected. Rodne proposed the same
amendment while the bill was in the Judiciary Committee, but it was also voted
down.
Rodne said that the current First Amendment law "recognizes that
high school students' First Amendment rights are not coextensive with those of
adults and [those] of school administrators." He added that teachers should have
an interest in offering "some supervisory authority" to student
publications.
Two amendments were presented by Rep. Glenn Anderson
(R-Fall City), one proposing that public school students' press and speech
rights should not exceed those rights of state legislators, and another that
said any legal fees spent by a public school in defending itself under the new
law would be reimbursed by the state. Both were rejected.
A final
amendment proposed by Rep. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) was passed for clarifying
the bill's wording to state that both the school district school board of the
district are not liable for content published in school-sponsored publications
unless they are controlling the content.
Despite the dismissal of Rodne's
amendment, there were several opposing comments made in regards to the inclusion
of high school students in the bill during floor debate late last
night.
Rep. Mike Armstrong (R-Wenatchee) said it was not the students
that he was worried about, but that the school officials would opt to eliminate
journalism programs and student publications to avoid conflict.
"School
boards are not going to want to take on the responsibilities that this bill
instills," Armstrong said. "We could see closures of newspapers in high schools
and colleges — what a shame — what an educational tool to lose. It
would just be a travesty."
Rodne echoed this concern, calling it a
potential "chilling effect" that could take place across the state.
Other
legislators shared their opinions, reminiscing about working for student
newspapers in their past, but also expressing their view of the bill as "silly"
and something "no one cares about."
Schraum said those comments were
discouraging to him when the House had just voted on "bills about unprocessed
milk and keeping dogs out of bars."
"It was sad to hear this hour-long
rant by the opponents who got up and said some really childish things, some
insulting things [about the bill]," Schraum said. "I was disappointed that it
had quickly deteriorated to that."
Mike Hiestand, a legal consultant for
the Student Press Law Center, said the arguments for and against the bill were
split down party lines.
"My biggest disappointment is that this has
become a partisan issue. It shouldn't be," Hiestand said. "Whether Republican
lawmakers support the legislation or not, I was really disturbed by the lack of
respect demonstrated by some of the bill's opponents during the floor debate
last night, some of whom expressed disdain that such a 'silly' issue was even
taking up their time. The right of citizens to express themselves on issues that
are important to them may not be a right opponents are willing to extend to high
school students, but it's certainly not frivolous."
The bill will now be
sent to the state Senate. Schraum said he is confident about the bill's chances
in the Senate and is pleased with its progress.
"I think we definitely
have an uphill battle over there, but I'm optimistic," Schraum said. "With close
to 50 senators, we're going to need every vote we can get."
Upthegrove's
office anticipates the bill to be assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee in
the next few days, where Chairman Adam Kline (D-Seattle) is a former attorney
for the American Civil Liberties Union. Schraum said he is hopeful that if
assigned to that committee, Kline's involvement will help their
cause.
By Erica Hudock, SPLC staff
writer
© 2007 Student Press Law Center
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