(WI) Shawano School District asked to apologize for removing article

[The Straight Story]

Shawano School District asked to apologize for removing article
Legal action threatened over student's column

A nonprofit Christian legal service has asked the Shawano School District to apologize to a student after administrators pulled a column he wrote for the school newspaper opposing the adoption of children by same-sex couples.

The service says it might take legal action if the district doesn't respond.

A 15-year-old Shawano High School student wrote a column recently for the editorial page of the Hawks Post quoting Bible passages and saying he believes homosexuals shouldn't adopt children. It was part of a package that presented viewpoints for and against gay adoption.

School administrators pulled the page after a gay couple with school-aged children complained and said the student's column could be seen as bullying.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20120127/GPG0101/201270539/Shawano-School-District-asked-apologize-removing-article

[xmas74]

1. The attorney for the student said that removing the

column restricts his freedom of speech. I thought Hazelwood vs Kuhlmeier already said that student papers were already restricted.

At least, that's what they taught us in high school and this wasn't long after the decision.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Yes school newspapers can be censored by school admins

Several court cases.

[xmas74]

4. I wrote for my high school newspaper

just a couple of years after the ruling. I remember quite well the to-do about Hazelwood, especially since it was a Missouri school. I had a few of my articles "creatively edited" while in school and three were "not fit to print", according to administration. (The three banned were about the increase in teen pregnancy, a state report about how there was a huge increase in std's in my town, and about how there were drugs dealt during lunch break. None were allowed because, according to the admin and the school board the problems were imaginary.)

I'm wondering if they want to push this case as far as possible. If it's overturned could it mean an overturn of cases like HvK? I don't think the same people pushing this case want those cases overturned.

[Viking12]

5. Much of the school newspaper 1st Amendment precedent is not particularly relevant

Assuming the story is accurate, the school opened a forum which would create a different central question than Hazlewood. If the courts are consistent, once a forum is created viewpoint discrimination cannot be accepted.

[xmas74]

6. If it's really discrimination against viewpoint.

We don't know that as of this time. All we know is that the student wrote something that was not approved. We don't know if it wasn't approved because of viewpoint, because of language or because of any number of other issues involved.

For all we know the student might have written a string of epitaphs that would make a seasoned sailor blush, all in the name of offering a religious counterpoint. We just don't know right now.

[Viking12]

7. You're correct, we don't have the details. Thus, my qualifier...

..."If the story is accurate"

[xmas74]

8. Exactly.

We have the same view.

I tend to think that it was something offensive and not just a well-written counterpoint. Then again, I could be wrong.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Since it "was part of a package that presented viewpoints for and against gay adoption"

there must have been specific language or opinions in it that were found offensive, rather than just the concept of opposing gay adoption. Any school newspaper is going to have to have some standards on what is offensive (you'd expect them not to publish a lot of swearing, for instance), so we'd have to see what was in the specific article to know if there's anything in the complaint.

[The Straight Story]

9. it had bible verses in it (nt)

[The Straight Story]

10. More info:

http://www.lc.org/index.cfm?PID=14100&PRID=1144

15-Year-Old Student Bullied for Supporting Biblical View of Family


www.LC.org

Shawano, WI – Liberty Counsel is representing the Wegner family after school officials at Shawano High School censored and punished Brandon Wegner, a 15-year-old, for writing an op-ed article explaining the Biblical view of homosexuality and supporting natural mother-father adoption. Liberty Counsel sent a letter to the school demanding it apologize for its unconstitutional and irrational censorship and humiliation of Brandon.

Brandon quoted several verses from the Bible regarding homosexuality. After Brandon wrote this article he was pulled into hours of meetings with school administrators and staff, without his parents’ knowledge. This caused him to miss exam preparation classes and at least one exam. Brandon was hauled before the superintendent on charges that he had violated the school’s bullying policy. Superintendent Todd Carlson told him that the column “went against the bullying policy,” and asked him if he “regretted” writing it. When Mr. Wegner stated that he did not regret writing it, and that he stood behind his beliefs, Superintendent Carlson told him that he “had got to be one of the most ignorant kids to try to argue with him about this topic,” that “we have the power to suspend you if we want to” and that the column had “personally offended me, so I know you offended other people!”

Brandon’s opinion was a part of an editorial page which presented viewpoints both for and against homosexual adoption, each articulated by students. After the school newspaper was published in the local town paper, a homosexual in the community complained to the school. School officials then censored Brandon's article forcing him and his classmates to pull the page out of the newspaper before distribution at the school. In a statement, the school “sincerely apologized” – not for allowing the topic to begin with, but only for the Biblical viewpoint presented by Brandon. The First Amendment protects the opinions of all, including student journalists.