The Student Press Law Center’s Senior Legal Counsel, Mike Hiestand, helped the students file public records requests and obtain records for their investigation. Heistand also provided advice about challenging the censorship.
“The SPLC helped me and my editorial staff to understand the illegality of the situation and the rights we have as student journalists.”
"With the guidance of the SPLC, my fellow student journalists and I learned about what protections we had as student journalists and what we could and could not do to fight administrative overreach."
"Other student journalists and I created our own independent newspaper called the Spotlight so we could write investigative news pieces that are controversial. Without the SPLC, the Spotlight would have never gotten off the ground. The SPLC has helped cultivate my love for the universal right of free speech."
"We were so grateful that an organization like the SPLC existed to back us up. I don’t think we would have had the confidence to found, print and continue to work on our independent magazine without the help and support of the SPLC."
"If sunlight is the best disinfectant, then you ought to be the sunlight. In other words, be a champion of your own cause by making sure that your voice is heard."
"When SPLC attorneys drafted legal responses to the university's actions of seemingly harassing a student for reporting unfavorable news and cutting the newspaper's funding based on its content, the university president at the time started to listen."
"The SPLC helped me realize that what I was fighting for was important. With their support, we were able to overturn the prior review policy and return Cardinal Columns to the rightful hands of student journalists."
Editors of Neshaminy High School’s student newspaper, The Playwickian, decided to ban the school’s mascot name, the Redskins, from publication on the grounds that it was a racist term.
"The Student Press Law Center was there when I needed help and guidance. I really had no where else to go, and no one else to seek help from."