387.

This is the number of educational censorship and free speech controversies detected by Georgetown University’s Free Speech Project since it was created in 2017; making up a significant portion of almost 1,000 cases reported by the University. 

The most frequently seen controversies are administration’s attempts to censor high school and university student journalist works they deem inappropriate, such as those surrounding social and political issues.

New Voices legislative initiatives aim to fight these controversies.

New Voices is a predominantly student-activist run organization, created by the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) to protect student press freedoms. New Voices’ laws work to ensure that student media will only be censored if the work is libelous, slanderous, contains an unwarranted invasion of privacy, violates federal or state laws, or results in students disrupting orderly operation of a school. The law also prohibits retaliation against advisers who refuse to censor their student journalists after administration tells them to do so.

In Ohio, the New Voices’ legislation is currently seeking a sponsor, or state representative, who will introduce the bill for consideration. As political and social tensions have continuously grown over past years, and will continue to grow, so have student media censorship cases. It is crucial that Ohio passes the New Voices bill to enshrine and protect the rights of all student journalists in the state.

The New Voices laws work to restore student press freedoms that had once been earned through one of the most predominant historical cases where students fought for their first amendment rights in schools, the 1969 Tinker v Des Moines case. The United States Supreme Court ruled a 7-2 decision in favor of the students, who in this case, were exercising their first amendment right to peacefully protest by wearing black armbands in objection to the ongoing Vietnam War. The court claimed “Students don’t shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gates.”

Despite this, in the Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier 1988 Supreme Court case, the court changed the Tinker v Des Moines decision, and claimed that public schools do not have to allow student speech if it is inconsistent with the schools’ educational mission. This decision allows the administration to choose which ruling they would like to abide by.

Now, New Voices fights to reinstate the rights that student journalists lost during the 1988 decision.

As of 2024, there are New Voices laws in only 17 states. In those that do not have the law, the results have been consequential. 

For example, at Northwest High School in Grand Island, Nebraska, the administration directed that students must use their birth name in the bylines of their stories instead of their preferred names. In protest, the journalism staff ran two columns and a news article addressing LGBTQ+ issues in their final publication of the year.

In response to the staff, the school shut down the entire journalism department.

Censorship issues have been prevalent for years, and will continue to be prevalent until the state takes action. For example, a local censorship issue that dates back to 2009.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Ohio was forced to send a letter to Stow-Monroe Falls High School officials to stop censoring the schools student newspaper after weeks of debate between school administrators and students, due to the newspaper staff attempting to run a memorial for a student who died by suicide. The story included a photo of the student and  letter from their parents thanking the community for their support.

After learning about the story, the administration blocked it from being published and then claimed that they must have editorial control over all future publications.

Student journalists should reserve the right to write about issues they are passionate about, whether they be deemed controversial or not. Without controversial and hard hitting news, student journalists go without the ability to ask tough questions and publish articles that align with issues that are present in our communities, power structures, and everyday life. 

This becomes an issue when more than 30 percent of journalism teachers reported noticing an increase in students’ interest in majoring in journalism in college or pursuing a career in the field later in life.

Due to this, post-secondary institutions have reported that many students entering a journalism program cannot find and write a hard news story. They have found that students who come from states where Hazelwood laws are in place self-censor, in turn preventing students from digging deep, developing a fear of covering hard news.

When students learn to write in ways that cater towards what an administration wants, the student is no longer concerned about fair and accurate reporting.

If the state needs convincing to pass a New Voices Law, it is imperative that representatives dive deeper into the censorship we are seeing on campuses across the country, that they look to the high schools and universities in our state facing these issues, and that they recognize the detriments that censorship can have on the future of student journalist.

In a world where misinformation often spreads like the truth, a New Voices law in Ohio is crucial to foster the passions of student journalism, to maintain the integrity of student journalism, and to better prepare students interested in journalism to write stories true to themselves and the world around them.