The Burlington School District unanimously passed a new student media policy Tuesday night that is in line with a state law protecting the First Amendment rights of student journalists.
The policy follows a censorship controversy at Burlington High School after the school’s student-run newspaper, the BHS Register, broke news of Agency of Education charges against guidance director Mario Macias in September.
Principal Noel Green told newspaper adviser Beth Fialko-Casey to have the student editors who wrote the story — Julia Shannon-Grillo, Halle Newman, Nataleigh Noble and Jenna Peterson — remove it from the newspaper’s website. The school later shifted gears and allowed the story to be published, but then temporarily re-instated a prior review policy that was against state law.
The New Voices law, signed by Gov. Phil Scott in May 2017, restricts school administrations from dictating what student-run newspapers can publish and protects student journalists and their advisers from discipline for the publication of sensitive stories.
The policy approved by the Burlington school board lays out the same six conditions in the law under which school administration can restrict publication.
Publication of information can be restricted if it is libelous or slanderous; is an unwarranted invasion of privacy; may be defined as gratuitously profane, threatening or intimidating; may be defined as bullying or harassment under state law; violates federal or state law; or creates imminent danger of materially or substantially disrupting the ability of the school to perform its educational mission.
Jeff Wick, the school board’s vice chair, said the new policy follows the spirit and letter of the New Voices law.
“The New Voices law was intended to provide clarity and First Amendment rights to student journalists,” he said. “Obviously we have to follow it, and personally I think it empowers journalists and carries out the First Amendment.”
Wick chaired the committee which drafted the policy. He was joined on the committee by Green; Fialko-Casey; Traci Griffith, a journalism professor at St. Michael’s College; Mike Donoghue, the executive director of the Vermont Press Association; and the BHS Register editors.
The policy states that the district believes freedom of expression is a fundamental principle for a democratic society.
“It is the policy of this District to ensure all students in all grades enjoy free speech and free press protections related to school-sponsored media, and to encourage students to become educated, informed, and responsible members of society,” the policy states.
The policy, like the law, states that there will be no prior review by the district or school administrators of content in student-run media outlets and students and their advisers will not be disciplined for publishing content that is protected by the law.
“Content in school-sponsored media will not be restrained solely because it involves political or controversial subject matter or is critical of the school or its administration,” the policy states.
Wick said that the board does not anticipate any censorship issues moving forward.
The committee met twice and examined the New Voices law, a model policy from the Vermont School Boards Association and a policy passed in South Burlington, Donoghue said. He said the policy dovetails the law and the VPA and the New England First Amendment Coalition support the policy.
Donoghue said the BHS student editors played a major role in drafting the policy, and had done good work with the Macias story.
“I give them top marks for what they’ve done and the professionalism of these amateur journalists in training,” he said. “They were arm and arm with professional journalists doing their job and scooped a bunch of media outlets with this story.”
