On March 21, 2018, students at C.K. McClatchy High School in Sacramento began a walkout to protest the school’s inaction against sexual harassment.
Sacramento Bee File
As a high school English and journalism teacher, I have always believed that reading, writing and education foster empathy, critical thinking and an understanding of our society and world. So when the Sacramento City Unified School District put me on administrative leave and ordered me to stay away from my campus and my students, I had to learn the hard way that the irony of my naïveté would be yet another lesson for this year’s kids.
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I have been the advisor of C.K. McClatchy’s student newspaper, The Prospector, for nearly a decade. In this time, my students have pushed through fear of retribution and published award-winning, heroic pieces on issues including teacher absenteeism, funding diverted from classes without proper authorization, discussions on the handling of sexual assaults and security and safety issues on campus.
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This year, my students decided to include a list of notable statements heard around campus in a piece called “What Did You Say?” These statements were overheard by our writers and editors or submitted by students who overheard the statements. The students hoped to show the climate on our campus — ranging from innocuous, silly and funny to hurtful and problematic.
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One quote on the list caused an uproar: “Hitler’s got some good ideas.” The students did not expect the backlash caused by the casual framing of the list.
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When the student journalists posted a follow-up explanation about the list, adults on our campus began to argue with students and publicly shame, admonish and insult them on their student-run Instagram.
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“Ridiculous certainly applies to The Prospector and beyond just the column in reference,” one comment read. “Joan Didion must be turning in her grave to think that her journalistic home is now an apologist for antisemitic speech.”
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Another comment stated that students should “formally apologize for printing antisemitic comments.”
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I turned off comments to protect my kids from undeserved backlash. My students were bewildered that commenters were angered by their reporting of this statement rather than how kids on our campus say things like this every day without any accountability.
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Because I believed that teachers and other adults on my campus understood the laws of free press and student press, I was just as shocked as my students by the vitriol from individuals twice their age. I had to remind adults multiple times that these are kids navigating journalism, and mistakes are inevitable.
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Yes, my students could have made their intentions more clear in the introduction to the list. But students have rights that give them the first and last say in what is written, how it is edited and what gets published without prior restraint, censorship or punishment from me or any other adult so long as it is protected speech. The kids did nothing wrong. They were brave to include this. They held up a mirror to their community, showing not only the innocence, humor and childishness of our kids, but also the plague of apathy and ignorance that creates fear and hatred on our beloved campus.
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When C.K. McClatchy Principal Andrea Egan emailed me expressing her anger about the inclusion of the quote my students overheard, I responded by citing the California Education Code 48907, which guarantees the right of high school newspapers to publish any content they choose so long as it is not obscene or slanderous, protects their decision to publish the quote.
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I thought this would be the end of the problem. It was not.
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Egan then pointed to a 1988 court case, Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, arguing there could be legal precedent to censor my students. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that because student papers exist as larger community forums, “the First Amendment rights of student journalists are not violated when school officials prevent the publication of certain articles in the school newspaper,” according to U.S. Courts.
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This is when it hit me that most people do not understand student press laws. I sent a copy of the kids’ column to Steve O’Donoghue at the Scholastic Journalism Initiative and to the Student Press Law Center to ensure my kids were legally protected. I have had several conversations since with the First Amendment Coalition and a professor of journalism at Sacramento State who all stand beside my students and me and are just as befuddled as I am about why this backlash on and off campus is happening.
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I was told by the Student Press Law Center that this situation mimics a well-known song and dance they have seen many times where a district realizes too late that they can’t punish student reporters or journalism advisors for something like this, so they try to search for anything else they can use to stifle student voices and the teachers who try to protect them.
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Regardless of legal protections, my students were initially illegally cut off from writing and publishing work for The Prospector. They were put into a different class with a teacher who was supposed to give them “sensitivity” lessons.
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If that isn’t punishment that actively disregards the First Amendment and California Education Code, I don’t know what is.
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As someone whose life is dedicated to being a learner, to connecting with my students and making them feel safe, being placed on administrative leave and banned from communicating with my students is the ultimate insult. I know I am not perfect, but I also know the unjust behavior of the district is an ugly facade seeking to justify the violation of rights that make some adults uncomfortable: giving kids the freedom to write and publish the ugly truths about their lives as students on our campus.
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Samantha Archuleta is a tenth-year English teacher and journalism adviser.
