High school officials ban independent student newspaper
By The Associated Press
03.28.02
MANDEVILLE, La. — School officials have barred the distribution of an independent student newspaper on the Mandeville High campus, saying the publication is unfair to a school-sponsored paper that is reviewed by the administration.
A publication called Above Underground was started last December by students in western St. Tammany Parish who were seeking an uncensored outlet for their writing.
The newspaper is produced entirely by a staff of high school students, features writing on such teen topics as school dress codes and dating, and is supported by local advertising, said student Andrew Preble, the publication's founder.
Circulation has grown from an initial 2,000 copies to about 7,000, he said. It has been distributed to students at Mandeville, Covington and Fontainebleau high schools.
Preble said the student writers simply wanted to have fun and not worry about school district censorship.
"We aren't out to do something controversial or put a bunch of swear words in the paper," he said.
Preble said he and other staffers had agreed to limit distribution at Mandeville and Fontainebleau high schools to before and after school hours, as the principals had requested. But Mandeville High School officials informed the paper last week that distribution was banned at that campus, he said.
In an e-mail to the Above Underground staff, Principal Ronald Styron said that his decision was "out of fairness" to school publications that "must work through sponsors and administration before distribution."
St. Tammany Parish School Board member Elizabeth Heintz said the school system was within its rights to limit distribution. Heintz said she was concerned about some of the independent newspaper's content.
But School Board member Mark Neal Hennegan said he believed Mandeville High School officials overreacted. He said he encouraged administrators not to bar the paper's distribution and feared the school system was on the wrong side of the law.
"I view this as censorship," Hennegan said. "There are First Amendment rights that we need to be mindful of. These are young adults."
Mark Goodman, executive director of the Virginia-based Student Press Law Center, said the law is on the side of the students. Although the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken on the issue directly, lower courts have generally held that students have a right to distribute independent publications on school grounds.
"That isn't to say that the school can't set reasonable limitations as to when and how distribution will take place, but to say there will be no distribution is clearly outside the law," Goodman said.
The newspaper's staffers said they hoped the issue would be settled without a court fight.
"That's a long way off," Preble said.