{"id":121,"date":"2023-07-24T20:06:55","date_gmt":"2023-07-24T20:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.peregrine-themes.com\/blogon\/2023\/07\/24\/presented-they-say-unpleasing-evo-acceptance-child-copy-copy\/"},"modified":"2024-02-12T13:48:53","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T13:48:53","slug":"she-unaffected-and-as-well-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/youthonassignment.org\/?p=121","title":{"rendered":"Your Right to Know: Protect the rights of student journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

About a year ago, Simon Mehring came home from a high school journalism conference with an idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehring, now a junior at Stoughton High School, had learned about an Illinois law that protects student media from censorship. He also found out that Wisconsin doesn\u2019t have such a law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, armed with model legislation from the Student Press Law Center, he raised the issue with state legislators, in conversations that lasted through the school year and into the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehring, in an interview, said he spoke several times with Rep. Dave Murphy, R-Greenville, who chairs the Assembly Committee on Colleges and Universities. This fall Mehring was at school and \u201call of a sudden, I got the news that they were going to introduce the bill.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legislation, AB 551, was patterned off the model legislation. It\u2019s co-authored by Sen. Rachael Cabral-Guevara, R-Appleton, and Rep. Tom Michalski, R-Elm Grove, with cosponsors from both parties. It was introduced on Oct. 23 and had a hearing in Murphy\u2019s committee on Oct. 26. It passed a committee on Nov. 2 and five days later was voted on by the full Assembly, where it passed unanimously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“<\/strong> The biggest surprise is how fast it went… “<\/strong><\/p>\nSimon Mehring<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest surprise is how fast it went,\u201d says Mehring, who, along with testifying at the Assembly hearing, submitted letters from other Wisconsin student journalists who have experienced censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill as passed would do several things:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Establish that public school journalists in grades 6-12 and student journalists at a UW System university or a technical college have \u201cthe right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press in school-sponsored media.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Let student journalists determine \u201cthe news, opinion, feature, and advertising content of school-sponsored media\u201d and prohibit school officials from \u201cexercising prior restraint of materials.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Preclude student journalists and their advisers from being disciplined for \u201cfor acting in accordance with the bill\u201d and give the ability to enforce their rights in the courts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Require school districts, the UW System and technical college boards to \u201cadopt a policy related to student journalists exercising their freedom of speech and the press in school-sponsored media,\u201d including an appeal process for students.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. The Student Law Press Center says 17 states have passed similar bills intended to offset a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that muddied the issue of censorship of student media.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Some of the support for the Wisconsin bill comes from Republican legislators concerned about protecting the free speech rights of conservative students on UW campuses. But the unanimous vote shows that the ideals it seeks to protect have deep bipartisan support.<\/p>\n\n\n

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    The bill did draw criticism from Howard Schweber, a UW-Madison professor of American politics and political theory, who told the Badger Herald newspaper it might be a \u201cdisastrously bad idea\u201d to give middle school and high school students the same press freedom as college students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    But Matthew Smith, a Fond du Lac journalism teacher, student journalism adviser and the president of the Wisconsin Journalism Education Association, said at the Oct. 26 hearing that he knows from experience the legislation will work at the high school level, having seen how students \u201cfollow the standards we talk about in class\u201d \u2014 that is, to behave responsibly and \u201cfocus on truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The bill is now with a Senate committee and would need committee and full Senate approval before going to Gov. Tony Evers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mehring is hopeful about its chances \u2014 and stresses its importance. \u201cEven though this bill is a niche issue,\u201d he says, \u2018it affects a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Your Right to Know is a monthly column distributed by the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council (wisfoic.org), a nonpartisan group dedicated to open government. Council member Larry Gallup is the audience growth editor for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. He can be reached at lgallup@gannett.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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