More than 100 Pittsburg High School students and area residents learned about their First Amendment rights Friday afternoon.
PHS Student Publications hosted a panel discussion about the Constitutional amendment — which guarantees freedom of religion, the press and peaceful assembly — at 1 p.m. in the school’s auditorium. Student Publications Adviser Emily Smith said the discussion, which was open to the public, was conceived as a traveling panel that will visit different schools each Friday to educate students on the “history of the First Amendment and how it affects us at the civilian level.” The panel discussion are already booked at schools across the state, she said, and PHS was first on the list.
“Kids take their freedom for granted, and I (though) it would be good for them to hear something about it,” Smith said previously.
The three-person panel was led by journalism instructors from the University of Kansas, including Jeff Browne, executive director of the Kansas Scholastic Press Association; Pam Fine, the Knight Chair for News, Leadership and Community; and Malcolm Gibson, general manager and news adviser of the University Daily Kansan.
Browne, who led the discussion, said he fields phone calls throughout the year from school newspapers with questions about what they should and should not print.
“I talk to them about what is journalistically thorough and ethically responsible,” Browne said.
Browne said having a thorough understanding of their First Amendment rights is especially important for Kansas journalism students because the state is one of only seven in the United States that has a law — the Kansas Student Publications Act of 1992 — specifically allowing student-journalists to practice the full range of journalistic rights guaranteed under the amendment. The other states are California; Massachusetts; Iowa; Colorado; Arkansas and Oregon.
“This is very important for students and educators because they’re not always aware of what those (rights) are,” Browne said.
The laws were enacted following several Supreme Court rulings that authorized school administrations to censor speech based on, among other things, whether the material or subject will cause a significant disturbance in the school, and whether it violates a district’s pedagogical philosophy — what it is trying to teach. But states can grant more rights, a la Kansas, Browne said.
But that can be a double-edged sword. In Kansas, student publications are in charge of what they print, have advisors that don’t act as editors, and aren’t subject to censorship. But, in turn, student publications can be sued if they print libelous or character defaming articles, just like a professional newspaper.
