CALIFORNIA — Lawyers for the Student Press Law Center and the
American Civil Liberties Union are filing a
lawsuit on behalf of students and a
teacher at Fallbrook High School in Fallbrook, Calif., claiming that the school
violated their First Amendment rights by canceling the journalism class and
removing the adviser.
Four students and the adviser, David Evans, said that the school's
principal, Rod King, censored two articles in the Tomahawk student
newspaper that were critical of the school district. One article concerned
whether the district's superintendent had refused to allow the school to be used
as a shelter during the October 2007 wildfires and the other was an editorial
critical of a school assembly promoting abstinence-only sex education.
After Evans brought the issue up with a member of the Fallbrook Union High
School District school board, King canceled the journalism class and removed
Evans as the paper's adviser, making the newspaper an after-school,
extracurricular activity.
The student plaintiffs include the authors of the articles and several
students who had signed up for the class for this school year. Evans said that
they decided to sue after attempts to negotiate with King and the district
failed.
"We decided to go through with the case because the district has taken a
hard-line despite its illegal conduct," he said. "In short, there's no
willingness for them to come to terms with their wrongdoing."
Evans also noted that the new extracurricular journalism program has yet to
produce a newspaper.
"They're calling it an after-school extracurricular program, but I have not
seen any product of any type nor has anyone else," he said.
The plaintiffs are seeking an acknowledgement of the rights of the
students, the reinstatement of journalism as a credited course in the curriculum
and the reinstatement of Evans as the journalism teacher.
David Blair-Loy, legal director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial
Counties, cited California state laws that protect the rights of student
journalists.
"I believe that the district and the principal have violated students
rights to freedom of speech and freedom of press, and long story short, we want
them to fix the problem," said Blair-Loy.
Dale Mitchell, superintendent of the Fallbrook Union High School District,
said that the district does not believe that King did anything wrong in relation
to the Tomahawk.
"The district does not concur with the ACLU in terms of the allegations
that they made," he said.
Evans said that the SPLC was able to find legal counsel for him and the
students early on in the case, and that he is thankful for the organization's
help.
"SPLC has been instrumental for moving us forward in this process, and
we're very, very grateful," he said.
By Caitlin Wells, SPLC staff writer
