Holbrook High School has been sued by journalism students contesting the closure of the student newspaper following school administrators’ efforts to withhold publication of two articles. The suit, filed on behalf of the students by the ACLU, characterizes the school’s actions as censorship. The case will test the impact of a California state law that gives students the same First Amendment rights that adults have in a nonschool environment.
North County Times
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
By TOM PFINGSTEN
FALLBROOK —- The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit this week accusing Fallbrook High School administrators of violating students’ rights to free speech over a pair of student newspaper articles that were held last year at Principal Rod King’s request.
The suit, filed in Vista Superior Court on Monday afternoon, accuses the Fallbrook Union High School District and King of suppressing students’ freedom of speech and freedom of the press in a series of events that ended with the newspaper class being closed and the paper’s faculty adviser removed.
Dan Shinoff, an attorney who represents the school district, said Tuesday the ACLU is incorrect in saying Fallbrook High School’s administrators are trying to censor student journalists.
“I think they embrace free speech, and they embrace the discipline that’s necessary to be a good journalist, as well,” said Shinoff.
The student-produced Tomahawk newspaper is still around as an extracurricular program and the newspaper’s former adviser, Dave Evans, still teaches at the high school, but the lawsuit alleges violations based on what civil liberties union legal director David Blair-Loy described as censorship.
Blair-Loy said Tuesday that California law guarantees student newspapers the same freedoms as professionally run publications.
“What we want is for Fallbrook High School to respect students’ rights to freedom of speech and freedom of the press by reinstating the newspaper and the newspaper class as a credit class, and to allow the reinstated student newspaper to publish the two pieces that were previously censored,” he said.
The suit alleges that King first told Evans to hold a news article about former Superintendent Tom Anthony’s forced resignation in November 2007. The article was held despite Evans’ “strong objections,” according to the ACLU.
The principal later ordered Evans to hold an editorial critical of the district’s abstinence-only sex education program.
After Evans complained to school board President Bill O’Connor about King’s alleged censorship, King then told Evans that the newspaper class would be transitioned into an after-school program and that he would be removed as the Tomahawk’s adviser.
King couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday (the school was closed in observance of Veterans Day) but Shinoff said he plans to prove that the district had legitimate reasons for holding the two articles and turning The Tomahawk into an extracurricular program.
“The school district is certainly not taking the position that the district has absolute control over free speech as it relates to students,” Shinoff said. “The issues here are more complex than that.”
He said the news article about Anthony’s forced buyout was held because of inaccuracies and the newspaper class was closed because of budgetary constraints.
Regarding the sex education editorial, Shinoff said King was hearing conflicting reports of who had written it.
The civil liberties union said Tomahawk editors Margaret Dupes and Daniela Rogulj wrote the editorial, and Blair-Loy said it was “ridiculous” to suggest that the piece could have been written by someone else.
Dupes and Rogulj are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed this week, along with Evans, Chantal Ariosta, who wrote the first piece that was held, and two other students listed as minors.
Shinoff objected to the idea that the school district removed Evans and canceled the newspaper class because administrators disliked or disagreed with certain articles that had been submitted for publication.
“I don’t believe that’s the administration’s attitude at all,” he said. “From my perspective, they want students to be able to express themselves, they want students to be engaged, and they certainly want students to develop the fine writing skills that are necessary to become a fine journalist.”
But Blair-Loy said the timing of the decision to close the class says otherwise.
King told Evans the class was being canceled one day after Evans went to the school board president to “blow the whistle,” said Blair-Loy.
“The district may claim it was a budgetary issue, but the coincidence is just overwhelming —- I don’t believe in coincidences that strong,” he said.
No hearings have yet been scheduled in the case.
A copy of the complaint is available at the American Civil Liberties Union’s Web site, www.aclusandiego.org.
Copyright North County Times