Landmark Cases

Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier impacted the way student journalists publish their work without freedom of expression. The ruling of the court cases made it possible for the “Prior Review” to be passed which meant that students are forced at all times to show the school officials what they will publish and see if they approve of it. This has impacted us negatively and especially as students because in any case given no matter what is being published, if a publication staff around any school is asked to take censor a certain topic or to remove stories, then there’s no student voice in the school. In today’s world you see many news media outlets report news that isn’t even real news like tabloids that are full of rumors, but they don’t have a law saying the government must check their news or sources first. In schools it’s a different story because students have the risk of not publishing their stories because maybe the school might not like it for whatever reason, and the news their publishing is school news. Here at FHN the publication staff is allowed to publish freely without first having to show school officials their work or asking permission to cover a certain topic with the permission of the school. If this was the case, I know that our school wouldn’t be the same and definitely wouldn’t have the voice it has today. Here at FHN the publication staff has definitely covered controversial topics, but school officials haven’t stepped in due to not liking the paper. Overall this court case has definitely restricted students voice , and given more authority to school officials.