Hawaii bill would protect school newspapers’ rights

Hawaii lawmakers are advancing a bill that would ensure more First Amendment protections for student journalists in Hawaii public schools.

House Bill 1529, which crossed over to the Senate for further consideration, would allow public high school journalists to exercise freedom of speech and freedom of the press without censorship or the risk of disciplinary action by the school administration, although libelous or obscene material would be excluded from the protections offered by the bill.

A public hearing on the bill is scheduled for 2:45 p.m. Wednesday in Conference Room 229 at the Capitol.

The measure protects student media advisers from being dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred or retaliated against for allowing students to exercise their rights as student journalists.

Under the bill, which has been dubbed the Hawaii Student Free Expression Act, school officials would have the burden of promptly justifying any limits they place on publication of the students’ journalism. The bill was introduced last year but did not receive a hearing in 2019.

The measure would not authorize any material that amounts to an unwarranted invasion of privacy. Also excluded from the protections in the bill would be any material that incites students in ways that create a danger of “the commission of an unlawful act, the violation of public school or board policies, or the material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the public school,” according to the bill.

Cindy Reves — who advanced the bill last year — has been the faculty adviser for McKinley High School’s The Pinion for 10 years. She said The Pinion is lucky to have avoided the problems at some other schools, and the McKinley principal does not conduct prior review.

For example, she said a few years ago The Pinion published a story about the Netflix series “13 Reasons Why,” a controversial TV show about suicide, and didn’t receive any backlash from the administration.

“They (the students) are the ones to choose what they want to write about,” Reves said. “As an adviser it’s my job to help them determine if it’s newsworthy and done in a legal and ethical way.”

But Waipahu High School’s newspaper didn’t receive the same treatment from its school administration, according to the testimony.

Kawika Pregram, a onetime reporter for The Cane Tassel, described a situation last year when a student journalist wrote about the “n-word” used in modern society in an article that included “extensive reporting on the history of the word.” He said a warning or label was placed on the article before it was posted on the paper’s website and social media.

The school administration pulled the plug on the story because it was deemed inappropriate, according to Pregram.

“They were worried that we were going to offend the parents of students,” Pregram said.

The Waipahu student who wrote the article declined to comment due to fear of retaliation.

The state Department of Education responded to questions about the handling of the article with a statement that said the department “strongly values student voice and encourages students to be fully engaged in their own learning, including civic engagement.”

“Preparing students to be global citizens requires them to master the ability to think critically, communicate effectively and take informed action,” said Communication Specialist Nanea Kalani said in an email.

Farrington High School’s newspaper goes through a prior review process — including checks for grammatical and spelling errors — before it’s printed.

Student media adviser Larry Wayman said the administration would take “too long to edit at times,” which could be seen as censorship.

“We haven’t been able to publish in a timely manner because the administration was holding up on prior approval,” he said. “And we do have to submit our copy to the principal.”

“What prior review does is that it causes the students to self-censor, which decreases the amount of stories that are going to be written because they automatically assume during prior review administrators will censor them anyway,” Pregram said in an interview.

State Rep. Takashi Ohno (D, Nuuanu-Liliha-Alewa Heights), who introduced the bill, said he’s hopeful it will make it to the governor’s desk.

“I just want to emphasize that career education should mirror real life,” he said.