When California public schools resume classes Monday, high school and college journalism advisors will be protected by a new state law designed to promote 1st Amendment freedoms.
The so-called Journalism Teacher Protection Act, which became law Thursday, prohibits school administrators from retaliating against advisors for trying to protect student press freedoms.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday, January 11, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 47 words Type of Material: Correction
New law: An article in the Jan. 4 California section about a state law protecting journalism advisors from retaliation said that only Colorado had similar protections for advisors, according to Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn. Only Kansas provides similar protections for advisors.
The measure, the most stringent of its kind in the nation, closes a loophole in state law that for years has ensured free speech rights for students but failed to guarantee protections for advisors, according to supporters. They say administrators have been able to exercise de facto campus censorship by clamping down on journalism advisors.
"Any day some story could come to me and my students that would put me in a bad position," said Paul Kandell, a journalism advisor at Palo Alto High School. "Without some security, teachers like me would lose their jobs."
Kandell, who has advised journalism students for 13 years, considers himself fortunate. He said he hasn't had problems regarding story or censorship issues at his school.
But that hasn't been the case with other advisors.
In the last three years, at least 15 high school journalism advisors have lost their jobs or been reassigned by administrators who perceived stories as critical, said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn.
He said Colorado is the only state that provides similar protections for advisors. But the new California law goes one step further by protecting any school employee, such as someone who might help distribute a newspaper, from being reassigned or losing a job merely for helping ensure free speech.
"If administrators can go after the teachers, then students are going to be less likely to do the bold stories and the investigative stories that the law encourages them to do," said Ewert, who was also the lobbyist for the bill.
Supporters of the measure point out that state law allows administrators to block publication of information that is obscene or libelous or would incite an immediate disruption of the educational process, such as a campus riot. The new law, supporters say, is intended to promote good teaching by protecting advisors.
The measure was sponsored by state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco). He said Saturday that he was moved to act after hearing repeated stories from across the state about good advisors stripped of their jobs after their students pursued valid stories.
