California protects the free expression and editorial independence of its student journalists, but recently student publications in Marin County have come under pressure from school officials and community members. The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) reports a dramatic increase in calls to their legal censorship guidance hotline over the last three years. Recently, Redwood High’s school newspaper, The Bark, and Tamalpais High School’s school paper, The Tam News, have faced controversies that have brought protection of student first amendment rights to the forefront of both local and national conversations.
One recent controversy involved the publication of a woman’s name in association with the Epstein files on The Bark’s Instagram page in February. According to the publication EdSource the woman, Gisele Attias Bonnouvrier, sent an email to Principal Barnaby Payne threatening to sue the district if The Bark did not remove her name from the post. Payne sent the demand to Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) Superintendent Courtney Goode.
According to EdSource, Payne then wrote to The Bark’s then-advisor Erin Schneider, saying “I have a directive from the cabinet and superintendent to redact the one name immediately from the post.” According to Editor in Chief Morgan Sicklick, the “lack of prior research and review” by administration before issuing the directive made her and The Bark’s students feel “confused and shaken up.” The post was subsequently removed, and then restored, indicating a degree of back and forth between students and administrators.
Tracy Anne Sena, president of the Journalism Education Association of Northern California, believes that Goode’s directive conflicted with the California Student Free Expression Law, which is the California Education Code Section 48907. It states that in public schools, student journalism can only be restricted if it is obscene, libelous or slanderous; or if it incites students to create dangerous or illegal activity on campus, violate lawful school regulations, or disrupt the school’s orderly operation.
“It’s a flat out violation of educational code 48907, and all principals and superintendents should be aware of the educational code and what it says,” Sena said. “There’s nothing wrong with reporting facts. Telling the truth is not libelous.”
Additionally, in February, The Bark’s cover of their magazine issue was a photo of a sign at an Anti-ICE protest with the words “students against Zionism” sparked complaints from pro-Israel community members. This led to a proposed investigation into The Bark’s editorial process by the TUHSD, and a request to the editors in chief to host an antisemitism presentation.
More recently, on May 27th, The Bark released an official statement saying “While it was unfortunate that the district’s decisions were not well-researched and abrupt, they have met with the Bark leadership multiple times since and honored our free press rights.”
However, a month after the incident, Schneider went on a leave of absence after being The Bark’s advisor for 13 years, citing “significant resistance” to doing her job. Administrators often hold direct power over students’ academic standing and the newsroom’s budget. Censorship often forces students to weigh a specific story against the survival of their publication or their own academic records. According to Schneider, this leads to self-censorship in student publications.
“I don’t think that students will be as likely to do that risky work if they don’t think the adults in the room have their back, or that the adults in the room don’t understand their rights,” Shneider said. “When student journalists’ work is threatened, people turn to report on the easy stuff. No more are we uncovering injustices in our world. No more are we speaking to voices that have been silenced because ‘this is controversial.’”
What Schneider describes is known as a “chilling effect,” a phenomenon where journalists are, according to Vanderbilt University Law School, “intimidated or discouraged from exercising their legitimate rights (most commonly free speech) out of fear of punishment, lawsuits, or retaliation.”
Student journalists and their advisor at another TUHSD school, Tamalpais High School, also experienced a chilling effect. After receiving four complaints from community members about their October print issue’s photograph of the school football team, Principal Sam Pasarow sent an email to The Tam News’ advisor, Morgan Paar. According to Paar, Pasarow’s email stated that a news photo of football players “mimicking the act of drinking and using drugs” was “inappropriate for our school environment and does not represent our values.” He called Paar into his office where, according to Paar, he threatened to recall all 200 issues of The Tam News. The threat and accusations “chilled” Paar and his students.
“I felt [the chilling effect] when I walked into what almost felt like an ambush to me in the initial meeting,” Paar said. “And then all three of the [editors in chief] said that they felt it. I know they felt it because when we came out with our second issue, they were, for lack of better words, scared.”
After speaking with the SPLC, Paar explained their free expression and First Amendment Rights to the editors in chief, who decided that the complaints were baseless and did not make any changes. They went to the principal’s office to explain their student journalistic rights to Pasarow. According to Paar, the meeting was professional and successful, and Pasarow was understanding.
When students experience censorship for the first time, research shows that they are less likely to write topics that they may get backlash on. Over 80 percent of college students reported engaging in self-censorship to avoid backlash from peers or administrators. On the other hand, students are also seeking more legal support from the SPLC, who reported a 42 percent increase in students seeking legal guidance to navigate school censorship and administrative retaliation.
David Loy is the legal counsel for The First Amendment Coalition, a Marin County-based press rights group. He emphasized the importance of student journalists defending their rights, as The Tam News editors in chief did.
“Press freedom begins at home,” Loy said. “If you ignore your rights, they will go away. It’s just as important to stand up for press freedom at the local level as it is at the national level, because if we don’t defend at the local level, we may not with the national level.”
Journalists are becoming increasingly concerned about the future of journalism; Pew Research Center found that roughly 57 percent of U.S. journalists are extremely or very concerned about potential restrictions on press freedoms in the country. Schneider emphasized the importance of teaching students both their rights and responsibilities as journalists going forward, especially through continued education in media law and ethics.
“I hope that we continue to study first amendment rights. I hope that we continue to look at case studies of media law so that students are confident about their rights and that they can eloquently express when they are concerned,” Schneider said. “Every program should be having a refresher or a unit on media law and ethics, especially at the starting level. There should be an entire unit at the beginning of the year about media law and ethics, not only to know their rights, but also to know their responsibilities.”
If you are a student journalist who has questions or is facing administrative pressure or censorship, call the SPLC hotline to get free legal advice at (202) 785-5450.
