Case One: In Indianapolis, November 2005, newspaper adviser Chad Tuley was suspended for allowing his students to publish a story about a student who was arrested (at school) and was charged for allegedly beating and stabbing a 67-year-old man to death. Tuley was cited as being suspended for insubordination. Tuley successfully sued the school district for $74,000, although he is banned from applying for a job in the Franklin Township district. According to thefirstamendmentcenter.org Tuley won because the court ruled that the school could not suspend him for allowing his students to publish a true and pertinent story.
North Star Opinion: We feel that this is a good example of an adviser standing up for their First Amendment rights. Tuley had every right to sue, and the student’s had every right to cover the story.
Case Two: According to thefirstamendmentcenter.org, Megan Chase, a sophomore at Woodlan Junior-Senior High School in Indiana wrote a story in January 2007 asking people to be more tolerant of homosexuals. It was published in her school’s newspaper. In response to this story, school principal Edwin Yoder installed a strict prior review policy. The school also tried to fire the adviser, Amy Sorrell, especially after she and her students resisted the prior review policy. Sorrell later settled, agreeing to move to another school and not teach journalism for five years. She now teaches at a private school in Ft. Wayne. The school now has no newspaper or yearbook.
North Star Opinion: The North Star wishes Sorrell would have stayed to fight as opposed to settling. We feel that the students deserve a newspaper and yearbook. Chase had every right to write a story about tolerance of gay rights. The North Star has written similar pieces and is grateful that North’s policy allows us to do so.
Case Three: According to editorandpublisher.com, in Franklin, Indiana Heide Peek, a 2002 high school graduate, attempted to sue the Clark-Pleasant Community School Corporation for references made about her in Whiteland Community High School’s newspaper Smoke Signals. The paper gave her the "worst reputation" award. The paper also made untrue references to her being raped by a monkey, as Peek had been allegedly raped earlier that year. She attempted to sue for $800,000. The jury ruled that the district was not responsible for the content of the newspaper.
North Star Opinion: We feel that the school wasn’t responsible. However, the students who wrote the story should have been held responsible. It was a poor ethical judgment on the newspaper’s part.
Law in the making: According to www.rcfp.org Senator Richard Lugar and Congressman Mike Pence, both of Indiana, are advocating the "Free Flow of Information Act." Originally proposed by Pence, this act will protect journalists from having to reveal confidential sources, with exceptions if the journalist witnessed a crime or the case is a matter of national security. This would help in cases such as that involving Judith Miller in July 2005. Miller went to jail when refusing to name her confidential source who leaked the identity of a CIA operative.
North Star Opinion: We fully support this bill.
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