Future of the First Amendment Report has error

by H. L. Hall JEA past president

Even though the Future of the First Amendment report released in January 2005 is an eye opener concerning high school students' attitudes about the First Amendment, there is one glaring error in the report.

A statement on page 27 of the full report says "A weaker majority (62 percent) also correctly stated that public high school authorities have the right to prevent student newspapers published at their high schools from publishing material they deem controversial." If 62% of the 100,000 students who completed the survey answered that way, they did not respond correctly. The Hazelwood decision did not give administrators the right to censor materials they deem controversial in all circumstances, especially if a high school newspaper has been operating as a public forum.

The survey question which came up with the above response is not in the full report. The authors of the report indicated they were aware the above answer was incorrect, so they had removed the question from the report. They also thought they had removed all references to the question, but they didn't. They have indicated they will remove the statement on page 27 when they reprint the report.

If administrators should try to use this statement as a reason for preventing school publications from writing about controversial issues, advisers should point out the fallacy in the report. This is just another reason why adivsers and students need to be totally aware of their First Amendment rights.