Tully: Fighting for a free press — in our schools

Good old-fashioned American journalism needs to happen in a lot of places these days, and that includes in our nation’s schools. It needs to happen there so that students like Selena Qian, a Carmel High School senior, can write, edit and push their classmates to think with the power of freedom at their backs.

“It’s important that we have the ability to express ourselves and debate issues,” Qian, editor-in-chief of the Carmel High School magazine, told me on a recent morning. “We have to have these conversations.”

Yes, we do.

With that in mind, a bipartisan pair of state lawmakers recently filed House Bill 1130, a thoughtful piece of legislation that would protect the rights of student journalists to operate free of pressure or censorship from school boards, administrators and others. It’s the type of bill that makes me want to stand up and cheer, or at least call my state lawmakers and urge them to support it.

Qian is fortunate. Her school has a thriving journalism program and an administration that believes students, led by strong advisers and a solid framework of ethics, should be allowed to operate freely. That freedom and that thinking is part of the reason the school’s journalism program is thriving.

“Students are deep thinkers,” teacher and journalism adviser Jim Streisel said. “And you have to give them a forum to express and explore the issues they care about. If they’re given an opportunity to express themselves and make their own decisions, then that is a true journalism experience.”

And that’s a wonderful thing.

Ten student journalists, including Qian, worked in recent months with state Rep. Ed Clere, R-New Albany, to craft the bill, which requires school boards to create rules protecting student journalists while carefully excluding protections for libel or speech that incites others to break laws. At its core, Clere’s bill, co-authored by Rep. Ed Delaney, D-Indianapolis, seeks to protect students from the heavy hand of administrators or others who want to control or suppress what students can discuss.

Diana Hadley, head of the Indiana High School Press Association, said the bill comes three decades after court rulings reduced student press freedoms, and after numerous examples of students and advisers being blocked from publishing certain content or being punished for doing so. A much-debated Indiana case several years ago involved a teacher suspended after allowing a student to write a column encouraging tolerance.

“Sometimes,” Hadley said in an email conversation, “student journalists are told their publications cannot include issues because they are too controversial or because they shine a negative light on the school, even though those issues are important to the school community.”

Streisel said the problem goes beyond direct interference. Without clear rules encouraging press freedom, he said, many students self-censor, avoiding issues and stories they fear could attract criticism from up high.

“Having that cloud hanging over you hinders you from doing great journalism,” he said, adding that his job “is not to change a writer’s mind but to help them say what they want to say better and more effectively.”

The benefits of allowing, and encouraging, a free flow of information are immense. First, who better to write about the issues facing students and schools than students themselves? Second, in this media-mad world there is a tremendous upside to students learning about journalism ethics and fairness, and listening to and learning about views that might be different than their own.

This isn’t a liberal issue. Conservative views should be equally welcomed in publications and in schools, and not just in newspapers. Students who oppose abortion, for instance, should not have had their posters removed from Carmel High School’s walls, as happened recently. A strong statement about press freedom, such as those in House Bill 1130, would send a message about all speech.

But animosity toward and frustration with the media sidelined a similar bill to protect student journalism several years ago, Hadley said. And, so, Clere has encouraged students to actively promote the legislation to both lawmakers and classmates, and others. It sure would be great to see this bill debated for what it is — upholding a great American tradition — and not turned into another reason to battle over issues that have so divided our country.

In a Carmel High journalism classroom last week, Qian talked about what the program has meant to her, and how it has helped her work better with students holding different views and perspectives. She also argued that having press freedoms in schools forces students to be accountable for the work they produce.

Giving students freedom takes some courage on the part of school leaders, and perhaps thick skin. After all, a story will occasionally tackle a topic that makes adults uncomfortable, or a column will occasionally make a point some don’t like. Hey, welcome to America.

“They’re not telling you what to think; they’re giving you things to think about,” Streisel said. “And what good is a column if everyone agrees with it?”

Exactly.

Thank you for reading. Please follow me at Twitter.com/matthewltully.