Question about a California Law

[Ksandra]

I am having to stand up for my journalism class regarding the school paper, and it kinda makes me queasy as it's a stand I never wanted to deal with, but feel obligated to.

Basically, it's about censorship. About a month ago I was pulled into the office by the principal and vp about the paper. Their issue was around the comics page, which has basically been a page two students post a bunch of memes they find on the internet. They found the memes to be offensive (one was a joke regarding a fat person on a diet, and I forget the other one). Basically their issue was that it was sort of "low class" jokes. I was frustrated, but I said "ok." And we tried to tone it down.

Every week, however, there is one or two memes that had to be removed. To the point that one day the kids said, "They just want us to find jokes only old white people find funny." And I am not going to lie, they are right. The admins are looking at it as this idea that they want this high standard on the paper because they want to be able to present it to the board members on how it's so good.

Today was kinda the final straw for me as there were two memes that were teasing teachers (not any at our school, the Unhelpful High School teacher memes.) Very mild, and I honestly find them funny myself. I think it's good to laugh.

Nope. It is too negative towards teachers and the school. So, I looked it up because I really felt they were denying these kids the right to have fun and express themselves, and sure enough here is the text on the California law:

Students of the public schools including charter schools, shall have the right to exercise freedom of speech and of the press including, but not limited to, the use of bulletin boards, the distribution of printed materials or petitions, the wearing of buttons, badges, and other insignia, and the right of expression in official publications, whether or not such publications or other means of expression are supported financially by the school or by use of school facilities, except that expression shall be prohibited which is obscene, libelous, or slanderous. Also prohibited shall be material which so incites students as to create a clear and present danger of the commission of unlawful acts on school premises or the violation of lawful school regulations, or the substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.

Each governing board of a school district and each county board of education shall adopt rules and regulations in the form of a written publications code, which shall include reasonable provisions for the time, place, and manner of conducting such activities within its respective jurisdiction.

Student editors of official school publications shall be responsible for assigning and editing the news, editorial, and feature content of their publications subject to the limitations of this section. However, it shall be the responsibility of a journalism adviser or advisers of student publications within each school to supervise the production of the student staff, to maintain professional standards of English and journalism, and to maintain the provisions of this section.

There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official school publications except insofar as it violates this section. School officials shall have the burden of showing justification without undue delay prior to any limitation of student expression under this section.

"Official school publications" refers to material produced by students in the journalism, newspaper, yearbook, or writing classes and distributed to the student body either free or for a fee.

Nothing in this section shall prohibit or prevent any governing board of a school district from adopting otherwise valid rules and regulations relating to oral communication by students upon the premises of each school.

An employee shall not be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against solely for acting to protect a pupil engaged in the conduct authorized under this section, or refusing to infringe upon conduct that is protected by this section, the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, or Section 2 of Article I of the California Constitution.[4]

So I sent an email saying we really needed to sit down and discuss this law and that I am not comfortable breaking it. I just want to make sure I understand it fully before going into the meeting.

As I understand it:

Schools cannot censor papers unless it is obscene, libelous, slanderous, or could incite a riot at the school (or pose a risk).

In order to censor those above things we need to have prewritten guidelines about it. (How specific these guidelines need to be IDK. thoughts?)

w/e guidelines we make we must be able to give justifiable reasons why those rules protect obscenity, libelous, etc. from happening.

I wish I knew how far it could go. I could see "obscenities" being from nudity to just swears, but I am not sure if the law looks at it that way.

Anything I might be missing?

[arus2001]

While I'm not going to touch the legalese, I feel more compelled to state that you should be encouraging those kids to create their own comics/art instead of just ripping shit off the internet. On some level, you can probably bet it's a game among them to see what kind of crap they can slip into the paper. Nonetheless, I'd also see it more difficult to "shut them up" if it seems like more effort is going into the activity in kind.

[Ksandra]

While I agree with you, these kids were dumped into the class and the few that chose it initially expected it to be yearbook only (newspaper was added late by admin). All of the kids in the class refuse to draw. I have them do at least one "create your own meme." And they have you make their own word searches, but that's about as much as I can push them.

With that said, I imagine this law means I couldn't force them to not use already made memes anyways.

[Zetanio]

However, it shall be the responsibility of a journalism adviser or advisers of student publications within each school to supervise the production of the student staff, to maintain professional standards of English and journalism, and to maintain the provisions of this section.

Memes fail to meet both of those standards. Problem solved.

[Salodin]

Why challenge them based on the use of memes? You really want to be the "new" teacher defending the right of some kids to post shit memes? Why not turn this around and have them write articles on the very censorship their school is pushing on them, what it means, etc. That seems much more constructive and illuminating then going to your Princ. and AP with nothing more than "I'm pretty sure memes are covered by freedom of press".

[Greatguardian]

At my school we have a saying. You only get one hill to die on; choose it wisely.

[Byrthnoth]

Agreed with the above. This seems like a bad issue for you to press.

Tell the silly wankers that they should make a website to share dank memes and leave print media to the 50+ whiteys as God intended.

[Ksandra]

First, people need to stop saying "new" teacher. You really have zero idea of my relationship with the principal. Trust me on this will not make me lose my job or lose that relationship.

With that said, I do everything I can to not break the law. That is just who I am. I don't consciously do it. I will not break the law.

I am not asking opinions on whether I should do this, just whether I am understanding the law correctly.

[Ksandra]

Memes fail to meet both of those standards. Problem solved.

I am pretty sure this is referring to writing style, not content. As in I can require them to write 250+ words using a delayed lede in an article. And I could probably require the memes have all words spelled correctly.

[Zetanio]

Would you really consider memes to fall under a professional standard of journalism?

[synistar]

I still remembered back in HS journalism getting censored by a teacher because it was making fun of her star long distance runner. We captioned a picture of the guy asleep on a Calculus book saying "he was learning through osmosis," but changed it to "studying hard for an A.P. Calculus exam"

That said, you have the responsibility to ensure that professional standards are met. These kids don't understand the repercussions these memes have on an audience. Now if they can be clever enough to have PG-13 humor (though that is pushing it for some administrators) then promote that. Work with other administrators so you can define the line of what is ok and what would be rejected. If anything, this can push their creativity if they can be up against the censorship line and get approved. Heck, give points to those who can twist their words into clever humor. It's not like Shakespeare was clean in his choice of words. It was hidden well in the writing.

[Salodin]

You do you girl, but this seems like not only a stupid thing to fight for, but a stupid way to do it. That specific part of the law might apply, but I'm sure there are a dozen others that give the Principal authority to do what s/he wants to do any ways. You going into a meeting blind to these rules puts you at a disadvantage, and only looks bad on you.

So again, do you want to be the "new" teacher (as in, I'm assuming you haven't been there half the time administration has) defending the use of shit memes, or do you want to be the teacher that took this opportunity to instruct your students on proper critique of those in power, and the true power of the press.

Again, you do you girl.

[Ksandra]

I still remembered back in HS journalism getting censored by a teacher because it was making fun of her star long distance runner. We captioned a picture of the guy asleep on a Calculus book saying "he was learning through osmosis," but changed it to "studying hard for an A.P. Calculus exam"

That said, you have the responsibility to ensure that professional standards are met. These kids don't understand the repercussions these memes have on an audience. Now if they can be clever enough to have PG-13 humor (though that is pushing it for some administrators) then promote that. Work with other administrators so you can define the line of what is ok and what would be rejected. If anything, this can push their creativity if they can be up against the censorship line and get approved. Heck, give points to those who can twist their words into clever humor. It's not like Shakespeare was clean in his choice of words. It was hidden well in the writing.

They have all been pg13 humor. They are completely harmless jokes. I think it is important for students to have a voice and a space to give that voice, which is what the paper should be, and why laws like that exist.

[dasva]

With that said, I do everything I can to not break the law. That is just who I am. I don't consciously do it. I will not break the law.

I am not asking opinions on whether I should do this, just whether I am understanding the law correctly.

Why not ask them? Bring up your concerns about wanting to be a lawful citizen and feel like you are being asked to do something that seems illegal and if they can clarify on it's legality

[Ksandra]

Why not ask them? Bring up your concerns about wanting to be a lawful citizen and feel like you are being asked to do something that seems illegal and if they can clarify on it's legality

That's exactly what I did.


I know how school politics work, people.

[Ksandra]

My queasy stomach is not about dealing with admins, I am tight with them and I have a very very good connection with them.The queasy stomach is because I'm breaking the law. This is to clarify whether I am breaking the law, not worrying about the admins. I'm not worried about them.

[Salodin]

No one cares that you're breaking the law though. You're rocking the boat in fear that these kids are gonna lawyer up? You're in fear that these kids parents are going to hire a lawyer to defend their child's right to publish dank memes? What are you actually afraid about?

All you're doing is sending a message. Think about the message you're sending when you walk into the office and say "let them post dank memes, they have the right to". You're not even entirely convinced they have the right to, so what exactly are you defending here? If anything, you're challenging the ability of the Principal to lead in the way s/he thinks the school should be lead. That's not a bad thing, but you better have something better than "I think memes fall under freedom of press". Zetanio gave you a more than legit answer.

[dasva]

That's exactly what I did.


I know how school politics work, people.

Roll your eyes all you want but you didn't say shit about actually talking to them already. And given the fact you still need clarification you make it sound like said conversation never happened or nothing of note was said but it's hard to say since you aren't saying that either. Either they clarify sufficiently or they didn't issue should be resolved after the conversation

[Melena]

It's going to be a hard fight to win even with the law on your side. When I was in high school, our school paper did an april fool's edition. In our town, there was a women's club with Chippendale dancers. They got one of the science teachers who was in his late 20's, early 30's to pose shirtless with a bow tie around his neck and black pants and did a fake article (with his permission obviously) that he moonlighted as a Chippendale dancer. Everything got printed, then the school flipped it's shit and EVERYTHING had to be approved by the Principal and all 3 Vice Principals. Any dissent from any one of them meant it wouldn't go in.

[Ksandra]

No one cares that you're breaking the law though.

I care. I don't want to break the law. Me. I have always been this way about everything. This is a personal thing.

You're rocking the boat .

Dude, you are ridiculous. There is no boat rocking. I met with p today during lunch about the field trips I'm organizing and was giving her the notes from the meeting I had. Had some laughs, she told me something she shouldn't have told me (possibly letting go another teacher... She's like that.). She doesn't care I brought it up, and is fine with us coming up with the rules. She doesn't know about the law either. You guys are the one making it to be a bigger deal than it is. She does want me to figure out what we are supposed to do, which is what I was trying to do in this thread.