Please answer the following questions on a rank-order basis, with a 5 being agree
strongly and 1 being disagree strongly. If you need to qualify any answers, please
use additional space with the question or a separate piece of paper.
1. _______Complete First Amendment rights extend to high school journalists.
2. _______Administrators should have the final say over the content of high school
publications.
3. _______School newspapers should be 'house organs' reporting only that which
gives the school a favorable image.
4. _______Good teaching and advising of journalism require that students make
the final decisions about content of the publications, based on teaching of journalistic
ethics and responsibility.
5. _______The journalism teacher and adviser should be state certified in journalism
with a minimum of 30 hours coursework in journalism.
6. _______School publications should have strict administrative controls on them.
7. _______The risk taken if a few abuse their First Amendment rights is outweighed
by the far greater risk run by supressing free press and expression.
8. _______It is in the public interest for school publications to make available
the widest possible diversity of views and expressions, including those unorthodox
or unpopular with the majority.
9. _______The newspaper adviser should be removed if paper content runs contrary
to that the majority of the school wants to see.
10. ______A free press in high schools is just as fundamental to the continuation
of American society as is a free commercial press.
11. ______Having administrators read student copy before publication is a form
of censorship.
12. ______An adviser reading copy prior to publication for more than proofreading
and grammar is censorship.
13. ______It is more important for the school to function smoothly than for student
publications to be free from administrative censorship.
14. ______So long as the school pays, in some way, for at least part of the cost
of the publication, administrators should have some control over what is printed
in the publication.
15. ______School publications should be considered 'open forums' in that they
are constituted as vehicles for student expression.
16. ______Controversial issues have no place in a school paper, which should
be devoted to articles which only affect the school.
17. ______Administrators should have the privilege of prohibiting articles they
think harmful, even though such articles might not be legally obscene, libelous
or disruptive or invade someone's privacy.
18. ______If the school publication is going to publish something an adminstrator
knew would put the school in a bad light, the administrator has a professional
obligation to see the item is not published.
19. ______School administrators are obligated to protect the First Amendment
rights of advisers and teachers, as well as those of students.
20. ______Articles which might hurt someone's feelings should not appear in the
school newspaper.
Please answer the following True or False in relation to the 1988 Hazelwood v.
Kuhlmeier Supreme Court case.
a. Have you heard of the Hazelwood decision? Yes ____ No ____
b. Please briefly explain the details of the decision:
1. _______The Hazelwood case enables adminstrators to do whatever they want
in regards to content of high school publications.
2.________The Hazelwood case is good because it gives the school control over
content of high school publications.
3. ________The Hazelwood case makes the adminstrator responsible for any legal
action taken against the student publication.
4. ________The Hazelwood case really strenghens the teaching of high school
journalism because it forces advisers and students to be more careful in what
they print.
5. ________According to the Hazelwood case, the forum theory of student expression
is now dead as applied to high school publications.
6. ________Students have no recourse now, because of Hazelwood, if an administrator
or faculty member wants to censor.Additional comments: