Wednesday Feb. 23

For our third day of Student Press Freedom Week, we’d like to introduce you to New Voices, a student-driven grassroots movement devoted to prohibiting student media censorship.

The legacy of the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier ruling from 1988 persists today. Student publications across the country find themselves victims of censorship by administration. In response, New Voices, which was spurred by the John Wall New Voices Act of North Dakota that passed unanimously and was written into law in 2015, is a movement that is going state by state to pass legislation prohibiting the censorship of student publications.

New Voices legislation restores student presses to the Tinker Standard and allows student journalists to exercise their rights to freedom of speech, expression and the press. Under a New Voices law, administrators are prohibited from censoring their students or retaliating against student media advisers who refuse to censor their students. In addition, student journalists are subject to the same code of ethics as professional journalists.

Currently, there are 16 U.S. states that have enacted New Voices laws. Last year, on May 23, Hawaii became the most recent state to join this list. In Texas, which has not adopted New Voices legislation, student journalists across the state can and are being subject to censorship by school administration.

Texas does have an existing New Voices campaign, led by David Doerr, the journalism adviser at Akins High School in Austin, along with a group of student officers located throughout the state who are working to protect student journalists’ rights.

To show your support for student press freedom and to be an advocate for change in Texas, pick up a black armband from room 134 tomorrow to celebrate the fifth annual Student Press Freedom Day.