As we prepare to return to school, several pieces of information are worth our attention:

• Another Washington school argues it is not responsible for student media content. The SPLC in its news flashes today ran a story about the Seattle school district saying it would not be responsible for content in a potential libel lawsuit.

• SPLC director Frank LoMonte authored an oped piece for The Philadelphia Inquirer on the topic of cyberbullying. LoMonte forcefully argued that more speech in schools, not less, is the sound way to deal with societal issues.

• A Churchill County Nevada judge this week tossed out a teacher’s lawsuit about an article the teacher said damaged her reputation.

• Sign the First Amendment as part of the 1 for All program. Other information about the program and the First Amedment can be found at the organization’s site.

As a new school year begins, let’s remain aware of the censors around us and look for the numerous groups around the nation who will continue to support student expression.

As we start the new school year, we need to remind ourselves that journalism is civic engagement. I have been thinking about this for some time because journalism is a discipline that requires more than reading the book, completing a FIB (fill in he blank) sheet and then taking a test. Rather, journalism requires that students fully engage in the discipline to learn it.

I believe journalism is a global discipline because it incorporates many skills found in other disciplines. It is a discipline that uses all 21st century skills in tandem as defined by Partnership for 21st Century Skills “critical thinking and problem solving, communication, collaboration, and creativity and innovation…” As I see it, journalism, is that one foundational class that provides writing skills, technology savvy, as well as the P21 concepts. It is LIVE learning, not traditional BOOK learning and that is why so many principals struggle with it because they are not in a place where they understand the engagement in learning that journalism provides for students. This global learning model requires student ownership and not teacher ownership of learning.

Moving students from teacher ownership of learning to student ownership of learning is difficult because students have been programmed to do as the teacher says instead of exploring new ideas, which is what we really want in education.

Over the years, as my students learned to move from the book to really learning, I found that I became a better teacher by letting them OWN their learning because their brains stretched much more. However, that was difficult for several administrators because they could not SEE me teaching.  I have always thought that peculiar, because, in my principal certification training, I was taught to look at how the students were learning though the teaching.  Perhaps we need to reteach principals to look at students’ growth over time.  They also need to look at how journalism students actually engage in the wider world though civic engagement.  We practice and practice for a football game, but we rarely provide opportunities for students to practice civic engagement because we are afraid what students will learn and publish.

I have created my personal  definition of civic engagement: “Taking action that provides solutions for identifiable public concerns for the greater good of the individual and collective stakeholders in the wider community.”

If I can help one student take an action through writing that provides some greater good for the wider community, that means my students have LEARNED journalism and they OWN their learning.

Because some student journalists have had issues, including facing litigation, with identifiable sources claiming they did not give consent for the publication of information attributed to them, JEA’s Scholastic Press Rights Commission recommends student media organizations follow a consistent process to help prove consent was obtained and to avoid potential legal conflicts.

The Commission recognizes that thorough reporting sometimes requires obtaining private or intimately sensitive information to give credibility to a story. It also recognizes that journalists want to avoid unwarranted invasions of privacy and related legal claims.

The Commission does not discourage reporting of sensitive topics, but urges student journalists, when they pursue such stories, to rely on more than verbal consent any time identified sources provide information that would normally be considered private and intimate.

The Commission recommends student journalists obtain consent for such information in writing or via audio or video in which the source explicitly states he or she understands the information is intended for publication.

Additionally, if journalists believe a source who is a minor is incapable of appreciating the consequences of giving such consent, they should obtain consent, also in writing or via audio or video, from a parent or guardian.

The Commission believes scholastic journalists should always be sensitive to the lives and needs of their sources – and audience – as they engage in the information gathering and reporting process.

The Commission recommends students contact the Student Press Law Center with legal and ethical questions about this process.

For more information on the use of consent, handling anonymous sources and other reporting issues, please go to the Scholastic Press Rights Commission’s news update on its website.

See Quicktime ethicsaejmc of the PowerPoint on source use presented to the Mile High Teach-In in Denver Aug. 3.

I know this is not directly related to scholastic journalism, but in a way it is.

As scholastic media – online and print – strive to find models of what they want to emulate, they of course look to the commercial media (I have reasons for not grouping them all under the guise of professional).

This post by David Zurawik makes excellent observations about some forms of  ”journalism,” most recently exemplified by ESPN’s LeBron James infotainment last night.

I am not recommending this because I am from Cleveland but because the author makes relevant points about journalistic credibility.

LeBron is gone; let’s not send journalistic integrity with him, at any level.

Hype is not what scholastic journalism needs; real leadership through digging and reporting is.

According to the National School Boards Association, July 8, First Amendment free speech protections apply to elementary school students.

Read more here:

http://legalclips.nsba.org/?p=797&utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=e6b2a6f790-Legal+Clips+Newsletter&utm_medium=email

Less than a year following a run-in with a charter school principal. a California adviser has been dismissed. For the story, go here.

During this past week, and especially today, commercial media have carried viewpoints by and about 1 For All.

1 For All is is a national nonpartisan program designed to build understanding and support for First Amendment freedoms, providing teaching materials to the nation’s schools and supports educational events on America’s campuses.

As you celebrate July 4 and all it means, consider becoming involved with 1 For All by joining its mailing lists, entering its contests and involving your students in its activities.

Check out its website and participate in the activities. As part of your students’ leadership training, urge them to become involved, to enter a contest or to participate in the 10 top ways to support the First Amendment.

At a time when we, as journalism educators and practioners of the First Amendment – and not just freedom of speech and press – face growing confrontations toward free student expression, becoming involved with 1 For All is a clear way for us to demonstrate our commitment to our country’s promise – and its future.

And, for our efforts to have any meaning at all, we must involve those voices in the village not heard nearly enough: our students.

From H.L.Hall:

Most of you probably are already aware that in two days 1,100 news outlets across the country will participate in an educational campaign about the First Amendment called “1 For All.” If you haven’t heard about it, this posting will serve as an announcement. It’s too bad this campaign is starting in the summer months when most schools are no longer in session. I would hope, however, that when school starts you will continue the campaign in your classrooms, a campaign that several of you have been carrying on for years.

According to the Nashville Tennessean, participants in the “1 For All” campaign include Yahoo, Google, YouTube, Ellen Degeneres, John Mellencamp, LL Cool J and others. They will all be explaining how the First Amendment affects everyday lives.

Ken Paulson, president of the First Amendment Center and the Newseum is the founder of “1 For All.”

“The truth is,” Paulson told the Tennessean, our schools don’t do a very good job of teaching the First Amendment. There are generations of Americans who don’t really have a good handle of what it says.”

Paulson’s comments should not be a surprise to any journalism teacher. JEA’s Student Press Rights Commission has been working for some time on ways to get students and advisers to learn the 42 words we all should value.

A 2008 First Amendment Center survey showed 40% of the respondents could not name even one freedom stated in the First Amendment. A majority knew about freedom of the press, but fewer than 20% could list freedom of the press, freedom of religion or the right to assemble. Even fewer knew about the freedom to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

In a column in the Tennessean, Paulson said “1 For All” was the collaborative effort of educators, artists, journalists, lawyers, and librarians as well as others who believe the “American public would benefit from a greater understanding of the First Amendment and the need to protect all voices, views and faiths.

The campaign will feature ads that celebrate freedom in America and ways we exercise freedoms daily.

Paulson said in his column  the “1 For All” campaign is non-partisan. “It’s all about education,” he said. He indicated  “1 for All” will provide educational materials, course content and study guides for teachers in grades 1-12. He also said “1 For All” will be interactive.

“Students and others,” he said, “will be encouraged to submit photos, videos, songs and stories that reflect the value of freedom in America.”

The focus, Paulson said, would be on all five freedoms.

For more information go to www.1forall.us.

A discussion on JEA’s listserv earlier this week raised some significant questions about FOI requests to student media – and the importance of clarifying who owns the content of student media.

According to Mark Goodman, Knight Chair in Scholastic Journalism at Kent State University, that situation raised an important issue for all public school-sponsored student publication staffs to consider: Under virtually all state open records laws, most school-maintained records are public: anyone has the right to request them for any reason.

Although there may be exemptions for some records that would implicate personal privacy or reveal personally identifiable information about individual students and their academic performance, Goodman wrote,  many records, especially financial records are open to the public on request and that would include the financial records of your publication.

Note Goodman said school records.

“I maintain that a much different standard should apply to any documents relating to the content of your publications,” Goodman wrote.  ”Although there is virtually no court precedent on this (and as each state’s open records law is different, so it would take a court case in each state to settle the matter), I think there is a compelling argument to be made the the First Amendment protects the journalistic work product of student publication student staff members, effectively exempting them from coverage of a state open records law.”

The key to making that argument work, Goodman said, is evidence that students,  not school officials (including the adviser), are determining the content of the publication.

Goodman shared a story about a state attorney general opinion on this issue involving a college student newspaper at the SPLC Web site.

“Here is yet another reason why a smart school will have a written policy stating that student editors make the content decisions for their publications,” Goodman wrote.  ”If schools are dictating content, that creates the possibility that every e-mail a student publication staff member sends relating to his/her job, every story draft a student creates, every page layout they work on will be subject to an open records request to the school.  On the other hand, if the students are acting independently (even with the advice of a faculty adviser), I believe these open records laws should not and would not apply.”

Goodman also addressed another point: who owns the copyright to the works media students create.

“If your school is claiming ownership (legally questionable at best), that will certainly bolster any public records requests for access to the records as well,” he wrote.  ”I’m a firm believer that student works belong to students, not necessarily to the individuals but to the student publication staff and NOT to the school.”

After reading about the yearbook craziness in Amherst, N.H., today, I’ve been stewing over the situation. While I’m reminded of the importance of having detailed publications policies, I’m also scared to learn how quickly a school board might work to change those policies on a whim.

Here’s the short version of the story: The Souhegan High School yearbook staff is under fire for including portraits of two students charged in connection with a murder. Some folks in the community, including family of the murder victim, consider this to be insensitive and inappropriate. It’s possible that these outraged community members are unaware of the historical value of the book as a record of school attendees during a given time period, or of the fact that both students were still receiving school services from SHS.

It’s bad enough that the yearbook staff has to face this criticism at a time when students should be enjoying the finished product and filling autograph pages in the back. What’s worse is that the school district is “reexamining” its yearbook policy based on the situation.

What can we learn from this craziness?
(1) Somehow, community members consider themselves the yearbook’s target audience, despite the fact that they do not attend the local high school and do not purchase these yearbooks. What can we do to educate our communities and help them see student publications as geared toward a student audience? The articles online make no mention of actual students being offended that their classmates appear alongside them in the portrait section.

(2) If you’re doing the right thing, stand by it. The apology issued by the superintendent and principal sends the message that the yearbook staff was wrong to include the student portraits. This hurts the program’s credibility and its students. They set out to create a complete, accurate historical record in accordance with existing publications policies. That’s cause for celebration, not apology.

(3) Even those with policies on file aren’t safe. This is censorship in disguise. If the school board “reexamines” this situation and forces change, the students lose. STUDENTS should be the ones determining the specifics behind the yearbook portrait policy and all other content decisions.

I hope students are there at tonight’s board meeting, and I hope someone pats them on the back for working to create the best possible yearbook at SHS.

I’ll be crossing my fingers as I follow this story and the fate of the yearbook publications policy on file.

Sarah Nichols, MJE