Interesting article, osso.
We have no such state law here. Most highschools go by Hazelwood School District vs. Kulhmeier (1988), giving school administraters virtually free rein to censor student publications.
From my own viewpoint (and I have expressed this repeatedly to the students), the school is paying the newspaper bills, so that puts it in the role of publisher. In the real world, the publisher
always has ultimate veto power. (In one case here in Tulsa, the newspaper publisher and his wife bought a historic home and tore it down to build a McMansion on the site. The story made the national press, but of course, not a single word was ever printed about it in our newspaper.) I ask my students, "If you were paying to publish a newspaper out of your own pocket, would you want that newspaper to criticize you?" Of course they wouldn't.
As a new faculty member, I am learning the hot button issues so I can steer the students clear of them. And the Head of School is learning that, as publisher, he needs to actually READ the final proof before he approves it.
