NEPN/NSBA Code: JICE
SCHOOL-SPONSORED STUDENT PUBLICATIONS
School-sponsored student publications are any publications approved by the school, supervised by school staff members and designed to impart particular knowledge or skills to student participants and audiences. These include but are not limited to the yearbook, the student newspaper, and the literary magazine. Administrators and staff shall exercise control of school-sponsored publications to assure that the participants learn whatever lessons the activity is designed to teach, that readers or listeners are not exposed to material that may be inappropriate for their level of maturity, and that the views of the individual writer or speaker are not erroneously attributed to the school.
To the extent deemed educationally appropriate by teachers or advisors for school-sponsored publications, student editors shall have initial responsibility for determining content. Advisors and administrators shall give substantial and due regard to the judgment of student editors and to the educational value of the decision-making process. However, an advisor or administrator may override a student editor’s decision if they deem content to be inconsistent with the educational goals of the schools. Factors that advisors and administrators should consider in determining whether content is appropriate include but are not limited to:
A. The educational objectives of the school-sponsored activity (for example, teaching accuracy and fairness are legitimate educational objectives of the student newspaper);
B. The privacy and reputation of individuals and staff;
C. The emotional maturity of the intended audience;KHC
D. Whether the material might reasonably be perceived to advocate alcohol use, drug use, or irresponsible sex; promote hostility, disorder, violence; inhibit the rights of others; or disrupt the functioning of the school;
E. Whether the contents are obscene or constitute “hate” literature that attacks ethnic, religious or any other group;
F. Whether the content might be attributed to the school rather than the views of an individual; and
G. Any other factors as appropriate to the materials and/or particular situation.
Cross Reference: JICEC – Student Distribution of Non-School Materials
KHC – Public Distribution of Non-School Materials
Adopted: November 12, 1992
Revised: May 24, 2001
Revised: June 1, 2017