Dean V Utica

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Dean Vs. Utica Community Schools

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Background

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In 2002 Junior Katy Dean was the sports editor for The Arrow her award winning high school newspaper
Along with fellow writer Dan Butts, they discovered that their home town, Utica Michigan, was being sued by a couple making allegations that the husband developed lung cancer and other sicknesses due to schools busses spending a prolonged period of time right in front of their home
Dean then pursued the story via contacting school district officials, looking at scientific studies done on the human bodies reactions to prolonged periods of diesel fuel.

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Previous Cases

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Bethel School District vs. Fraser

The Bethel case involved a public high school student who delivered a nominating speech containing elaborate and immature sexual innuendo at a student assembly. He was suspended for violating the school's no-disruption rule, which prohibited obscene, profane language. The student contended that the suspension violated his First Amendment rights because his speech caused no disruption of school activities (relying on the Tinker decision, above) The Supreme Court ruled that school officials may prohibit vulgar, lewd and offensive student speech before a student assembly.


In Tinker, several students planned to wear black armbands at school in protest of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War and mourn the dead on all sides. School officials quickly adopted established a ban against the armbands; even though other symbols were permitted. When the students wore the black armbands to school, they were suspended. The Supreme Court ruled that school officials may not censor student

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Hazelwood V. Kuhlmeier

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This case was relevant to Dean because it was the most important variable in the first amendment due to the case that occurred around 1988.
The case was won by Hazelwood as the judges decided that the school did no violate the students first amendment rights
Hazelwood significantly narrowed the First Amendment protection available to most public high school student journalists and allowed for greater administrative control over editorial content.


It basically established that in order to be free to post whatever content a student wants without school interference their must be an established forum that is independent and irregularly checked by the school. If the forum was regulated by the school then they had the right to pull any story they saw fit at any time.

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others

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1968: Epperson v. Arkansas and Board of Education Island Trees Union Free School District vs. Pico
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court held that even though the state is in charge of a public school, it cannot withdraw curriculum that is at odds with certain religious beliefs. This case stemmed from that of Susan Epperson, a tenth grade biology teacher in Little Rock , Ark. , who sought voiding a 40-year-old law forbidding the teaching of the evolution.
In the Island Trees case, an upstate New York school board removed nine books from a high school library, including Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut and Black Boy by Richard Wright, when it deemed they were inappropriate for young people. Several students and parents challenged the school board's decision and the high court ruled that the books could not be removed simply because some people found them objectionable.

1969: Tinker v. Des Moines School District
In Tinker, several students planned to wear black armbands at school in protest of U.S.

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Schools Argument

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Principal Machesky and other school officials - specifically including Superintendent Joan Sergent - claimed that the story was based on unreliable sources and contained a number of inaccuracies.
According to court testimony, Assistant Superintendent Randall Eckhardt also told Machesky that because the school district was involved in litigation it "would be inappropriate for the school district to comment on that.“
Not wanting to delay distribution of the entire issue, the Arrow staff removed the censored material and sent the paper to the printer with an editorial on censorship. Next to the editorial was a black box with "Censored" stamped in white lettering.

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Deans Reaction

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A year later - on April 4, 2003 - after school officials had repeatedly refused to reconsider their decision - she filed a lawsuit against the school district in federal court.
As part of the censorship battle, the Arrow staff took their case public, garnering wide support at both the state and national level.
A month after school officials censored Dean's article, a local commercial newspaper published it along with an editorial condemning its censorship.

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Judges Reactions

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After examining the evidence and hearing courtroom testimony, Judge Arthur Tarnow called the school's censorship "indefensible."
First, he found that the Arrow was a limited public forum. To reach that conclusion, the judge examined nine factors to determine the degree of control school officials exercised over the Arrow.
He noted that students had no practice of submitting content to school officials for prior review nor did the faculty adviser regulate the topics the newspaper covered. In fact, the judge found that during the preceding 25 years, school district officials had never intervened in the editorial process of its student newspapers.
He also pointed to language in the district's curriculum guide, course descriptions and the masthead of the Arrow itself as evidence that the newspaper's operations were consistent with that of a limited public forum.
Second, the judge closely examined Dean's article and, using criteria gleaned from Hazelwood - including the article's fairness, proper use of grammar

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What are Forums

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Public Forum

First, the judge made clear that Hazelwood's weaker protections do not apply to all public high school student media. There are, two types of school-sponsored student media: so-called "public forum" student media (which includes "limited public forums," such as the Arrow), where student editors have, by policy or practice, been allowed to make their own editorial decisions.


Non Public
where school officials have routinely exercised more authority over content. Public forum student media, the judge in Dean affirmed, are protected by the much more protective Tinker standard, which prohibits censorship of otherwise lawful speech except where it would seriously disrupt normal school activities
where student editors have not been allowed to make their own decisions about content and, therefore, cannot argue that they are a public forum, the Hazlewood standard applies. 

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The End

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Discussion Questions:
What makes a newspaper safe from the abuse of school power?
When is it ok for a school to sensor a students work because those in power simply do not agree with it?
Do you think that schools should allow public forums?
Do you agree with the Dean Vs Utica Verdict?