After spending hours researching, investigating, interviewing and writing, student journalists find their voices are regularly stifled by school administrators in states like Texas. Student journalists often operate under extreme censorship that silences important discussions and perspectives in their communities. Censorship of student media has become so normalized that most student journalists experience it in some form at their schools. But in a country built on freedom, why is there still a fight to report and publish the truth?

New Voices is an advocacy movement to ensure student journalists are protected against censorship, onerous prior review and prior restraint. So far, 18 states have passed what are known as New Voices laws, but Texas has yet to pass one, leaving student journalists operating in an environment of fear. New Voices Texas (NVT) is led by eight student officers, four specialists and an adviser. They aim to spread awareness and to fight together to get legislation passed during the 89th legislative session.

“It’s the first time a lot of us have [to] work with something like organizing or trying to change a lot in the state,” NVT North Texas Regional Organizer and Communications Specialist Poojasai Kona said. “It’s a little bit overwhelming – you are kinda just thrown into it. You’re trying to understand what would be the best way to raise awareness, and what would be the best way to appeal to state legislators. It’s crazy, and sometimes you don’t know who to turn to.”

In Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988 set the precedent for greater control by administrators over school news publications, allowing censorship for any “legitimate pedagogical concern.” In that case, a principal censored two stories about divorce and teen pregnancy from The Spectrum, the school newspaper of Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis, Missouri. The court ruled in favor of the principal, 5-3, stating that no rights were violated.

New Voices laws aim to improve the student publication experience by clearly defining the roles of students, teachers and administrators in the publishing process. They would also set clear limits to the kinds of content that can be censored and provide guidelines to students for what is not allowed, including libel and obscenity.

“We’re just trying to report the news,” Kona said. “There’s no good or no bad news. It’s just news. And if our news feels like we’re taking an aim, we’re not. We’re just trying to show our perspective.”

In 2019, a New Voices bill was filed during the 86th Texas legislative session, sponsored by state representative Mary González (D-Clint). NVT supporters testified before the Texas House of Public Education Committee, and the bill won unanimous and bipartisan approval. But it died in the Calendar Committee, never scheduled for a vote before time ran out for consideration.

“If you’re basically censoring students at a young age, they’re not gonna wanna go into a journalism field and they’re not gonna follow their passion,” NVT Education Officer Katie Grumet said. “It’s important to support journalists and let them cover the issues that are important to them, but also to their community.”

More recently, during the 2023 legislative session, state representative Erin Zwiener (D-Driftwood) sponsored HB 5266, which NVT supported. The bill was sent to the Public Education Committee, but was never considered.

“[Passing the bill] will allow [student] journalists to hopefully feel more comfortable covering issues that are in their community,” Grumet said. “It’s hard to cover issues that you’re worried about being censored over.”

According to a survey conducted by the Foundation For Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), 63.8% of college newspaper editors reported some form of censorship in the 2020-2021 academic year.

“[Joining NVT] made me understand how important student journalism is, because I found out that it could be taken away from me,” Kona said. “You don’t really understand the importance or the value of something unless you know that it can be taken away from you or that it could just be gone before you know it.”

The Society of Professional Journalists has a Code of Ethics that all journalists follow: seek truth and report it, minimize harm, act independently and be accountable and transparent. SPJ declares that these four principles are the foundations of ethical journalism and should be practiced by all media.

“The most important thing that legislators should understand is that they need to trust our advisers at our school,” Grumet said. “This bill being passed doesn’t just mean it’s a free-for-all for publications and we can publish whatever we want. It just means that we can cover more of the important issues in our community.”

Examples of censorship include financial censorship, withholding funds, firing advisers, shutting programs down, prior review, prior restraint, and withholding information. For Kona, every Friday, an assistant principal comes into the newsroom to review every story that is written.

“Now I have to wait, like a week or two until my assistant principal looks at the story, reads through it, or maybe they just skim over it,” Kona said. “I have to wait that long just for them to say, ‘I like it, like you could publish it.’ That’s not very timely and it just causes a lot of delay in our publication.”

Administrators put pressure on student journalists and advisers who write articles that might be “controversial.” Student journalists in Texas face a constant threat that their work might be censored. Journalism advisers are often stuck feeling scared of losing their jobs when allowing their staff to take on big stories. For example, in 2018, the principal of Prosper High School in Texas censored student editorials and ended the contract of award-winning adviser Lori Oglesbee-Petter.

“[We have] that fear in mind, and [are] quite literally walking on eggshells at my own publication,” Kona said. “Our principal himself, he’s made it very clear that he supports prior review because he wants to make sure that the content we’re publishing is not offensive to any student group.”

To help enact the New Voices law in Texas, students can write letters to their state lawmakers and representatives. Students facing censorship can contact the Student Press Law Center (SPLC), where there is a panic button to receive support and legal advice.

“If you strip the freedom of expression away from student journalists, you’re going to be responsible for creating a future generation that’s afraid to speak their truth,” Kona said. “Having a generation that’s afraid to speak their truth is not a place you wanna live in. They’re not gonna speak up when they feel like inequity is happening and they’re not gonna speak up if they see something happening in front of them.”

*Editor’s note: Faye Zayed is a student writer. All views expressed in the commentary are her own and are independent of the district, Rouse High School and the publication.

*As seen in print