What's happening
This bill establishes free speech rights for student journalists in school-sponsored media, with certain exemptions and liability protections.
Why it matters
Empowers student journalists with editorial control. over the content of school-sponsored media, shifting responsibility for news, opinion, and features from school administrators to students themselves.
Protects student media advisors and school employees. from retaliation by the school for supporting students’ free speech rights or for good faith decisions that result in the limitation of publication, encouraging a safer environment for advocating student expression.
Requires schools to justify any censorship. by placing the burden on administrators to demonstrate a legitimate reason for restricting student expression, rather than allowing preemptive suppression.
Limits school liability for student expression. by clarifying that opinions and content in student media are not official statements of the school, thereby reducing potential legal risk while still holding individuals accountable for willful misconduct.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Protect Student Journalists’ Speech
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Recommit, enacting clause stricken
- Referred to education
Full text
3 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
1594
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 15, 2019
Introduced by Sens. O'MARA, HOYLMAN -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student journalist free speech act
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 to read as follows:
ARTICLE 18
STUDENT JOURNALIST FREE SPEECH ACT Section 860. Short title.
861. Definitions.
862. Student journalist free speech rights.
863. Exemptions.
864. Liability.
§ 860. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as the "student journalist free speech act".
§ 861. Definitions. For the purposes of this article the following terms shall have the following meanings:
1. "Educational institution" means a public, private or charter middle or high school.
2. "School-sponsored media" means any material that is prepared, written, published, or broadcast by a student journalist at an educational institution, distributed or generally made available to members of the student body, and prepared under the direction of a student media advisor. "School-sponsored media" shall not include media intended for distribution or transmission solely in the classroom in which the media is produced.
3. "Student journalist" means a student enrolled in an educational institution who gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs, records, or prepares information for dissemination in school-sponsored media.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD03296-01-9
S. 1594 2
4. "Student media advisor" means an individual employed, appointed, or designated by an educational institution to supervise or provide instruction relating to school-sponsored media.
§ 862. Student journalist free speech rights. 1. Except as otherwise provided in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, a student journalist shall have the right to exercise free speech and of the press in school-sponsored media, regardless of whether the media is supported financially by the educational institution or by use of the facilities of an educational institution or produced in conjunction with a class in which the student is enrolled.
2. Subject to section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, the appropriate student journalist shall be responsible for determining the news, opinion, and feature content of school-sponsored media.
3. Nothing in this section shall preclude a student media advisor from teaching professional standards of English and journalism to student journalists or from grading the performance of a student in accordance with such standards.
4. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official publications of an educational institution except for the material described in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article.
5. Educational institution administrators shall have the burden of demonstrating justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of student expression under this article.
6. No student media advisor or employee shall be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against solely for acting to protect a pupil engaged in the conduct authorized under this article; and further no student media advisor or employee shall be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred or otherwise retaliated against solely for an action, undertaken in good faith with this article, which results in the prohibition of the publication of speech pursuant to this article.
7. Political expression by students in school-sponsored media shall not be deemed the use of public funds for political purposes.
8. This section shall not apply to any private middle or high school that is controlled by a religious organization, to the extent that the application of this section would not be consistent with the religious tenets of the organization.
§ 863. Exemptions. The following forms of expression shall not be protected by this article:
1. Expression that is libelous, slanderous or obscene;
2. Expression that constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy;
3. Expression that violates federal or state law; or
4. Expression that incites students to commit an unlawful act, to violate the policies of the educational institution, or to materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of such educational institution.
§ 864. Liability. No expression made by students in the exercise of free speech or freedom of the press protected by this article shall be deemed to be an expression of policy, opinion or position of the educational institution, nor shall any such expression be considered to be an endorsement in any way by the educational institution and no educational institution, student media advisor, employee, parent, legal guardian or administrator of an educational institution shall be held liable in any civil or criminal action for any expression made or published by students, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct. Nothing in this section shall be construed to create any private action on behalf
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of a student other than to seek injunctive relief allowing the publication of the speech in question.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student journalist free speech act
Purpose or general idea of bill
The purpose of this legislation is to extend and protect freedom of speech and the press in school-sponsored newspapers by allowing for more autonomy of student journalists over the content of their publications. This bill will expand of freedom of speech and the press by giving more editorial control to student journalists, while at the same time contin- uing long standing ethical standards which will encourage responsible journalism at the high school and collegiate level. This bill does retain some School Administrative oversight provisions over articles which maybe considered; libelous, slanderous, obscene, an unwarranted invasion of privacy or violate Federal, or State law.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1: The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 which would be referred to as the "student journalist free speech act". Arti- cle 18 contains definitions, exemptions, rights and liability.
Section 2: Establishes the effective date.
Justification
In many states including New York, school administrators have the authority to prohibit content from being published in school newspapers over the objection of student journalists. This legislation would guar- antee freedom of expression and freedom of the press to all student journalists, including both public and private high schools and colleges and universities by giving them final editorial control, rather than school administrators. This will allow for student independence and individual initiative; student ownership of their publications which would foster a greater sense of civic engagement and increase the protections of student journalistic expression.
Recent news events have highlighted the need to protect and expand student journalists' rights with more editorial control. In April of 2017, a news story demonstrated the importance of expanding freedom of press rights to students. According to a news article from The Washing- ton Post, a group of 6 high school students from southeastern Kansas were writing an article about their new principal in the school newspa- per when they uncovered that she had no valid educational credentials as far as hex collegiate degrees. The story quickly made the national news and the unqualified principal lost her post. The Washington Post states that under Kansas law, the students were protected from "administrative censorship". And because of this they were able to get the story published. Unlike Kansas, New York State Law does not protect students from "administrative censorship". A recent editorial published in the Rochester Democrat :7, Chronicle also highlighted this issue and stressed the importance of giving students more control over their reporting. Ownership by students over their publications will help
foster more responsible student journalism and increase civic engagement among them.
Freedom of expression and press are fundamental principles in our demo- cratic society and those principals should be expanded to student jour- nalists as well.
Prior legislative history
2018 - S7721B
Fiscal implications
This legislation will have no fiscal implications for State or local Government.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.