Take that, censoring administrators!

Below is one of the items from the Student Press Law Center's e-mail report Feb. 1. The report is also available at the SPLC Web site.

Washington student editors suing school district take their paper underground -- with a little help from a friend

The Kodak, a student newspaper in Everett, Wash., finally saw the light of day earlier this month, with a slightly new image.

The newspaper, which has not been printed since November, emerged as an underground paper called the Independent Kodak. Two student editors distributed the paper after school as the most recent move in a battle-turned-lawsuit pitting the newspaper staff against administrators who want the students to remove a statement saying the paper is a student forum.

Co-editors Sarah Eccleston and Claire Lueneburg distributed their newspaper on the sidewalk outside the school after-hours and encountered no opposition from administrators. The paper looked virtually identical to the school newspaper, complete with the masthead declaring the paper a student forum. In the Independent Kodak, the words “student forum” are in boldface type.

The 8-page paper cost $270 to print, most of which was donated by Jim Patten, a retired reporter and journalism professor. Patten was head of the journalism department at the University of Arizona until 2002.

“It struck me as being another in a much too long line of situations where administrators, instead of being proud of journalism students, they come down all over them,” Patten said. “They should be saying ‘We don’t agree, but we’re proud they think for themselves.’”

Patten purchased a $250 ad featuring the text of the First Amendment to run in the first issue.

Eccleston and Lueneburg plan to keep the Independent Kodak coming out every month, even if it means reaching into their pockets, and their parents’, for funding.

The students sued the Everett school district in mid-December, saying the district violated their free speech rights when the high school’s new principal required them to submit the student newspaper for prior review before distribution.

The student’s lawyer, Mitch Cogdill, said Principal Catherine Matthews demanded prior review “immediately” after a story ran in the Kodak saying she was the third choice of students on the hiring committee.

District Spokeswoman, Gay Campbell has denied that claim and said, “There is no way that this has anything to do with some vindictive action against the students.”

These girls represent the best of what we as educators hope students will achieve: the ability to think critically, to know their rights and role in society, and to act on their convictions. As models of excellence it is a shame they are not being supported by their school administration.

I have confidence my own students would act in a manner much like these girls. They know their rights, and they have strongly held beliefs.

In their honor, consider making a donation to the Student Press Law Center's Tomorrow's Voices Campaign (every $2 gets a matching $1 through September from the Knight Foundation).

-- Wenatchee, Wash.