Ryan ChartrandHigh school advisers and college journalism programs no longer have to fear retaliation from administrators because of controversial student work.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law Sept. 28 that protects students and employees from being penalized for student speech.
The new bill would “prohibit an employee from being dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against for acting to protect (student speech).”
Senate Bill 1370, which will take effect Jan. 1, 2009, was introduced by Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo.) A strong proponent of free student speech, Yee has written other bills dealing with the matter, including one to prevent the censorship of student-written material.
“Since passage of these (previous) laws, some administrators have tried to control student speech by threatening, disciplining, demoting, or even firing faculty members, including journalism advisers” wrote Yee in his statement regarding the need for the bill.
“I have seen instances in other states, at other institutions, where advisers fear for their jobs because of what students journalists printed,” said journalism department Chair and Professor Bill Loving. “This law is well overdue.”
“I want to believe that Yee really thought there was a problem,” said journalism professor and media law instructor John Soares, who said he has never personally experienced punishment for student speech. “There are always two sides to every story, but I do think it’s a great law.”
Mustang Daily general manager Paul Bittick said the Mustang Daily hasn’t had any problems in the time he’s been with the newspaper.
“I think this law will benefit high school students more,” he said.
Some school administrators have objected to the bill, claiming that it wouldn’t allow them to fire teachers or employees who weren’t doing their jobs.
Loving said the bill is specific enough to prevent this because it’s there to protect advisers when they’re defending student rights.
“It’s not there to protect bad teachers,” Loving said. “It doesn’t mean we can do everything and anything. I recommend that students and advisers learn (their) rights.”
He particularly liked that advisers and school employees “have access to the court of opinion as well as the court of law. Before, it came down to public opinion and that doesn’t always make the administrator do the right thing.”
Soares said the law also protects those who read student newspapers.
“We need to focus on who this ultimately affects,” Soares said. “Readers can be confident the content (of the newspaper) isn’t colored by political leanings or strong-arming. They can say this is the news of the day and it’s not filtered except at the reporter/editor level.”
The bill also ensures that students can still challenge censorship or retaliation after graduation. In the past, some schools have tried to say a student’s claim is no good if he or she graduate while the case is pending.
The Student Press Law Center, a nonprofit organization which provides free legal information and assistance to students and educators, called the bill “one of the nation’s toughest and most forward-looking laws protecting teachers against unfair retaliation when they stand up for their students’ First Amendment rights.”
The California Newspaper Publishers Association also strongly supported the bill.
If an incident was to occur at Cal Poly, Loving said he would refer complaints to the students.
“If the president, provost or dean complained to me about the content of the newspaper – something they didn’t like – I would tell them, ‘You are free to write a letter to the editor.'”