Warren Watson, director, announced today the creation of an annual fund-raising campaign to support J-Ideas, Ball State’s scholastic journalism and First Amendment institute.
Parties are invited to give $25 or more to the J-Ideas Foundation to support future activities of the program. Donations are tax deductible. <more>
J-Ideas Director Warren Watson blogs regularly for the Indianapolis Star. Here are his latest offerings:
Ignorance in Palin, Dowd free-speech remarks
The grace period is over from the November presidential election. Now, it's time to review the latest cases of ignorance about the First Amendment and how it fits into our lives. <more>
Student journalists scoop professional press
By Gerry Appel
In an era where student journalists are often criticized for poor decision-making, one student newspaper should receive praise after scooping its professional counterparts. <more>
Mile high with the First Amendment...
By Randy Swikle
We were north of the Mile High City near the Rocky Mountains. The principals were voluntarily descending—not from the tall peaks but from their position abutting the summit of school hierarchy. When they reached level ground, we could see each other more clearly. And clear sight leads to insight. <more >
Logging on for the First Amendment J-Ideas, Ball State Teachers College again offer online course for administrators
By Gerry Appel
J-Ideas
After a long day working with other administrators, teachers and students, Susie Coleman still needs to prepare for a class she is taking for continuing credit. However, the dean of students at Greenfield Central High School does not have to worry about gassing up her car, grabbing paper and a pencil, and racing to a classroom.
Coleman is part of a course for principals and administrators that takes place in cyberspace. And not only is the delivery method new, the class itself is about the First Amendment rights of students in public schools – a topic that has never been the focus of an entire course.
The course, “The Administrator and the First Amendment,” is offered through Ball State University’s Teachers College in conjunction with J-Ideas, a national First Amendment institute in the Department of Journalism at Ball State. Using online lectures and discussion boards as a launching point, students craft papers analyzing the First Amendment in schools. The eight-week course is underway this summer for a fifth time, following up sessions in fall 2005 and subsequent semesters.
Coleman, a former journalism adviser, admits the class delivered more than expected.
“I will admit that I thought I knew it all, or at least most of it, but the course opened my eyes in so many ways,” said Coleman, a student in fall 2007.
Why an online course on the First Amendment?
The First Amendment is endangered in public schools. According to the 2007 Future of the First Amendment study, conducted by the James L and John S. Knight Foundation:
• Only 25 percent of principals believe high school students should be allowed to report controversial issues in their student newspapers without approval of school authorities.
• Only 17 percent say student media is a high priority.
• 19 percent of principals believe professional newspapers should be reviewed by the government.
These feelings are in line with the 1988 Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier U.S. Supreme Court case, which helped strip students of their First Amendment rights. Hazelwood was the result of student journalists suing their school district after the principal halted distribution of a student newspaper containing stories on divorce and teen pregnancy. The court ruled that principals can censor student newspapers if they have a reason “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.” However, this vague rationale has led to principals censoring students who write content with which they disagree.
Student opinions of the First Amendment are low as well. According to a 2007 survey of high school students:
• 74 percent of students responded that they do not appreciate the First Amendment.
• 54 percent say newspapers should not be able to publish without government approval.
• 32 percent say the First Amendment goes too far in the rights it guarantees.
One goal of the course is to get principals to include the First Amendment in their busy schedules.
“Principals have one of the toughest jobs in America,” said Warren Watson, J-Ideas director, who instructs the course with Joseph McKinney, chairman of the Department of Educational Leadership at Ball State. “We’re hoping to prompt our administrators to better understand media law and incorporate First Amendment concerns into their routines.”
The First Amendment in public schools
Journalists, educators, and others agree – the First Amendment has a role in schools, and not just for student media. A strong First Amendment atmosphere creates stronger, more engaged citizens, said Teachers College Dean Roy Weaver.
“There is no more noble and vital purpose for schooling than to educate future citizens and leaders in the principles of the Constitution,” Weaver said. “The First Amendment is the cornerstone for our freedoms. Administrators, who are the leaders of our schools, must be advocates for the First Amendment. They must model the behaviors that protect these rights in the schools, which serve as ‘mini’ democratic societies.”
A school is a natural place to develop these skills for a democracy, said Roger Lavery, dean of the College of Communication, Information, and Media at Ball State.
“To be successful as a republic, you require an informed citizenry,” Lavery said. “To not have different opinions, without different point of views, I think we would be going down a slippery slope that would not have a happy ending to it.”
Marilyn Weaver, chairwoman of Ball State’s Department of Journalism, said she agrees.
“As educational leaders, principals have a responsibility to see that students are practicing skills they need to be tomorrow’s leaders and citizens,” she said. “How can we expect students to be good citizens if we don’t give them these rights when they are young? Schools should embrace these responsibilities of the First Amendment for the sake of everyone’s future.”
McKinney said he believes student media can play a key role in creating better citizens.
“It’s so important that students learn to be responsible and to understand that this is a freedom that cannot be taken for granted,” McKinney said. “Students need to learn to be good citizens and if a school provides that outlet – media outlet – it really enhances and improves student participation in exercises that are going to be helpful in respect to them becoming good citizens.”
If the First Amendment is so important in schools, one might wonder why some administrators fight for control of student media. Conventional wisdom suggests administrators often fear students will publish stories that portray the school in a bad light. McKinney said many administrators wish to maintain their school’s status quo, which can clash with student media.
“Sometimes it’s probably more expedient, if you will, in terms of operating the school not to have students going off and raising questions that are important in terms of the greater society but are questions that some conservative people might think should not be dealt with in a school setting,” McKinney said.
Randy Swikle, a former Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Journalism Teacher of the Year at Johnsburg (Ill.) High School, said he believes “bad news” in a student newspaper does not have to be bad for the school.
“When school officials share bad news with the school community, they can garner local resources to help resolve problems and build support for the school mission,” Swikle said.
“The public accepts mistakes much easier than cover-ups. When a principal wants to censor a student newspaper because of his notion of ‘bad publicity,’ he betrays the very essence of both First Amendment protection and the school mission – enlightenment.”
Swikle suggested that, “the better approach is for the principal to help guide the student reporter by inspiring good ethics and responsible coverage.”
There also is confusion among principals on when and whether they can legally censor students. Two key U.S. Supreme Court cases determine right of ownership.
Tinker v. Des Moines School District (1969) revolved around Iowa high school student Mary Beth Tinker and several classmates who protested the Vietnam War at school by wearing black armbands. The Supreme Court ruled that students “do not waive their rights at the schoolhouse gate.” This served as a victory for student expression until 1988, when the Hazelwood case stunned free speech advocates nationwide.
In Hazelwood – a school in suburban St. Louis – the Supreme Court ruled that schools could censor if the reasoning is “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”
“If principals are really interested in promoting diversity of opinion, creating a marketplace of ideas for students and discussing the problems of the day, they are better off using the Tinker standard,” McKinney said.
Logging on
With strengthening the First Amendment in schools as the goal, educators at Ball State and J-Ideas moved to create a one of a kind online course.
Unlike many online courses, students do not have to meet online every week at a specific time. Instead, they log online early in the week to watch instructional videos and spend the rest of the week reacting on the message boards to the videos. The videos cover a variety of topics about the First Amendment and media literacy, including lectures, panel discussions and interviews with a variety of First Amendment experts.
In a staff editorial, the Muncie Star Press praised the course.
“This necessary balance of independence and responsibility (of students) is hard to define, but Ball State’s new course should help principals navigate through the maze,” the editorial read.
Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, also said he believes the course has significant value to schools. Creating a strong First Amendment atmosphere in schools should start with administrators, Policinski said.
“Teaching the teachers is an approach in which we (the First Amendment Center) are involved,” Policinski said. “But teaching those who direct the teachers is essential to re-creating an educational environment in which both the academic standards and administrative example live up to the ideals of free expression.”
Lavery believes the use of technology in the course is beneficial to principals, who can develop additional computer skills while studying the First Amendment. Lavery added Ball State’s reputation for journalism and teacher education creates an ideal home for this class.
“Because of the expertise that has been brought together (at J-Ideas), I think it creates a more credible source of educational material in course development than maybe a traditional journalism program in the country,” Lavery said. “It’s better credentialed.”
Marilyn Weaver said she agrees that the course’s instructors are top-notch.
“There are so many people involved in teaching this course, from instructors at Ball State who have been in the classroom and worked as professional journalists, to the former Dow Jones Journalism Teacher of the Year,” Weaver said. “It’s incredible. I don’t think you would get that type of instruction from an on-campus class.”
Principals who have taken the course have found the technology useful. They also said the course’s asynchronous schedule is convenient.
“The ability to access course material 24/7 had advantages at times. It was easier for me than meeting at a regular time each week or commuting to a campus,” said Ron Owings, principal of Northwestern Elementary (Kokomo, Ind.) School.
Rhonda G. Thompson, director of special education at Sheridan (Ind.) Community Schools, echoed Owings’ thoughts.
“I like that I can work at my own pace; I have a week to complete assignments and I still get a response from the professor,” Thompson said. “This course has caused me to rethink some issues about the First Amendment – as an administrator, I now make sure I know the law before disciplining a student.”
Thompson is not alone in saying the course has changed perceptions on the First Amendment. With principals having to worry about a multitude of school issues, they often say they don’t give the First Amendment much thought. In fact, according to Coleman, in administrator classes, her colleagues are sometimes told how to suppress the First Amendment.
“Some administrators have been taught to fear the student press or to restrict it,” Coleman said. “I know when I began my admin training in the ‘90s that was the stance of my professor. We would fight weekly over rights for students and restrictions on the student press.”
Variety is the spice
Students in the course study a variety of free speech topics. Court cases such as Tinker and Hazelwood are covered, First Amendment research is analyzed and contemporary issues are also explored. Some of these timely topics include students’ First Amendment rights from home. There are documented instances of students criticizing teachers, administrators or fellow students on their blogs. When this occurs, principals often punish students, despite the students creating online content from their homes. Taking action against students for off-campus behavior brings up the concept of the school’s arm reaching into homes to parent students.
During the course’s offering in summer 2007, students studied this concept as it was discussed across the nation as a result of the “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” case. The case, formally known as Morse v. Frederick, involved a student displaying a “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner across the street from an Olympic torch relay, a school-sanctioned event. While Alaska student Joseph Frederick was holding up the banner on a day he was absent from school, the parade was considered a field trip by the school – leading to principal Deborah Morse to walk across the street to confiscate Frederick’s banner. Frederick claimed his First Amendment rights were violated, and took Morse all the way to the Supreme Court. The court sided with the school, saying the event was considered an extension of campus. Furthermore, the court ruled that schools could keep students from advocating illegal drug use.
The “Bong Hits” case was not the only example of students learning while events unfold. During the course’s spring 2007 offering, former Woodlan High School journalism teacher Amy Sorrell found herself fighting for her job after one of her students published an editorial urging tolerance for homosexuals. While Megan Chase’s column did not advocate homosexuality – it only rallied respect for gays and lesbians – school administrators still felt Sorrell should have run the story by them first, which she was expected to do for controversial subjects. The school eventually forced Sorrell into teaching English at different school in the district before Sorrell left to teach journalism at a private school.
The online course also allowed principals to research the history of their school’s publications, through assignments that required analysis of old school newspapers and yearbooks. This assignment helped principals understand the history of prior review at their schools, while uncovering other bits of school history.
Best practices
While the course’s students encounter multiple instances of administrators censoring student media, they also learn about examples where principals support a free student press. Swikle shared such a story.
When the now-retired Swikle was teaching at Johnsburg (Il.) High School, his principal was arrested for operating a motorboat while intoxicated. Naturally, Swikle’s newspaper students wanted to cover this story. Although the principal did not want them to cover the arrest, he was cooperative in not interfering with the story.
“He placed the school mission above his own vulnerability,” Swikle said. “The principal told student editors he’d rather they not cover the story but quickly added: ‘But if you don’t, you wouldn’t be very good journalists.’
“Here’s a courageous administrator who accepted accountability and at his own peril supported the most basic call of the school mission: enlightenment. The weekly student newspaper covered the news story and printed editorials and letters to the editor on the topic. When a judge later exonerated the principal, that was reported on the front page, too.”
Swikle added, First Amendment rights are in step with schools’ missions.
“In the 25-year history of my high school, administrators never asked student journalists to submit their work for prior review. They never threatened censorship. Instead, they nurtured the notion of a free and responsible student press and practiced democratic education by allowing student perspectives – whether agreeable or contentious – to be heard.
Logging off
Looking back, Coleman and other administrators marvel at how the course either reinforced their supporting views of the First Amendment, or taught them to look at free speech in schools from a different perspective.
“I really felt like many useful and thought-provoking topics were covered, even in areas I thought I was a ‘practicing expert’ in,” Coleman said. “I still learned new ways to look at things ... I enjoyed expanding my knowledge base and really being forced to think more about the digital age and how the First Amendment applies.”
Dick Daniel, retired principal from Muncie (Ind.) Central High School, said the class used its own First Amendment rights during discussion.
“Everyone was allowed to speak his mind,” Daniel said. “I didn’t see a put down the entire time. We didn’t always agree with each other and the free flow of information permitted by the discussion board was healthy.”
However, the First Amendment does not just apply to classes or to student media. Joel Martin, superintendent of the Oak Hill United School Corporation (Converse, Ind.), said the class has changed his perception of the First Amendment outside of school.
“I am going to be a better administrator because of this course. I was challenged to think and I was able to hear perspectives and wisdom from a very credible group,” Martin said. “Not only as a school administrator, but also as a father of four kids, I will be more apt in the coming weeks to ‘teach’ about First Amendment issues.”
In the end, Watson said he hopes students feel the same way as Martin – enthused about the First Amendment and acting as a soldier on this document’s behalf.
“Issues in public schools are often complicated,” he said. “An administrator can use free speech as a means to learn more about those issues – and the mood in a school.”
“And teach the principles of democracy at the same time.”
For more information on the course, call (765) 285-8923 or e-mail infomail@jideas.org.
Two Connecticut researchers have become synonymous with the problem of poor First Amendment awareness in the nation’s high schools.
Ken Dautrich and David Yalof, professors at the University of Connecticut and backed by the Knight Foundation, have logged thousands of miles nationwide in developing a series of studies and followups about the First Amendment. more
