I
1
Consol given ‘free rein’
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come
Ir stylist
Jay!
Any subject is fair game for A&M Consolidated jour
nalism students as long as the story is presented fairly
and accurately, said Celeste Hilliard, the student
newspaper adviser.
“If they are not given the opportunity to act respon
sibly, if all they can write on is club news, then they
don’t ever learn to act responsibly.
“I don’t think the walls of the school constitute the
student’s world. I’m not capable of drawing that line of
demarcation where school starts here and stops here. ’’
Rodney LeBoeuf, the high school principal, agrees
with Hilliard.
“If a students want to cover an article outside the
school, I personally don’t see any harm in it.”
The article should be of student interest, however
he added.
Students can write about politics if they know
enough about it, Hilliard said.
“We covered the school bond issue last year. I try to
get them to go to school board meetings, but they’re
really not interested.”
Speakers and concerts on the Texas A&M University
campus can be covered also, she said.
“We look for audience appeal. We do write for high
school kids.”
Editorials and letters to the editor that are critical of
some school policies have been written by students and
printed in the Paper Tiger.
“As long as it’s well written and presents both sides,
they can print it even if it doesn’t jive with the school
board.”
LeBoeuf agrees with this policy.
The legalization of marijuana was touched on by a
student last year, Hilliard said. “The kid who wrote it
wrote it responsibly.”
Administrators leave the job of editing the content of
the newspaper to the adviser.
“I’ve worked under three principals, including Mr.
LeBoeuf, and talked to them about their policies and
they said that’s what we hired you for.”
The general guidelines Hilliard said she set down for
the Paper Tiger are: no gossip columns, editorials are
to deal only with people, letters to the editor must be
answered by the staff.
Obscenity can be worked around she said. “It’s not
so much censorship, it’s just good taste. It would offend
some people.”
The administration has no written guidelines for the
paper to follow.
Hilliard tells her students to remember who the pub
lisher is, who the audience is and to remember the
paper is a legitimate arm of the school.
“You’ve got to treat them responsibly and look at
them as human beings able to handle the assignment
you’ve given them. You can’t be looking down your
r
Courts uphold students 9
free expression in papers
Freedom of the press in public
schools has been a hotly con
tested legal issue for several
years.
Administrative claims that the
student newspaper is simply a
part of the curriculum provided
for journalism students and so
not protected by the constitution
are no longer standing up in
court. Controversial articles,
such as ones on birth control and
abortion are being permitted in
student newspapers since the
courts have found the papers to
be a forum for student expres
sion.
The landmark decision for stu
dents’ First Amendment rights
was the Supreme Court’s ruling
in Tinker vs. Des Moines Inde
pendent School District in 1969.
Although the case did not deal
specifically with freedom of the
press, the ruling has since been
applied by lower courts to such
cases.
Students in Des Moines
schools wore black arm bands to
protest the Vietnam war. School
officials ordered the students to
remove them. Students who re
fused were suspended from
school.
The Supreme Court ruled that
school authorities cannot abridge
students’ freedom of expression
unless they can be shown it inter
feres with school discipline.
Although courts have been
" unwilling to allow an unfounded
fear of disruption to censor
newspaper content, many school
officials are not willing to wait
until a disruption occurs.
The 14th Amendment pre
vents states from abridging the
freedom of speech, press and ex
pression.
Public schools are funded with
state money, which makes them
an arm of the state.
Employees of the school, in
cluding administrators and fac
ulty, are considered agents of the
state.
There have been several court
decisions in recent years affect
ing freedom of the press in pub
lic schools. The decisions di
rectly affecting Texas schools
have come from the 5th Circuit
Court, although decisions from
other circuit courts can be used
as precedents for cases in Texas.
The 1st Circuit Court in Bos
ton ruled that abortion, socialism
and pre-marital sex are issues
that can be dealt with in a stu
dent newspaper since it would
be difficult to determine com
munity values for them.
The First Amendment allows a
wide variety of subjects to be
discussed including those that
may anger the community, the
Court ruled.
School authorities cannot
place restrictions on a student
publication once it has been es
tablished, the New York Court of
Appeals ruled.
The 5th Circuit Court ruled
that a student publication used as
a departmental tool is still pro
tected by the First Amendment.
nose at them as being a child all
the time. Let them make their
mistakes and learn from them.’’
Journalism students have
mixed feelings about the Paper
Tiger.
“It’s sometimes redneck and
sometimes open-minded,” said
Glenn Richards, this year’s
former editor.
Controversial stories would
have run when he was editor, he
said.
“I woidd have raised hell if
See EDITOR, page 14
THE BATTALION Page 9
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