#19 Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier

Facts of the Case

At Hazelwood East High School in St. Louis County, Missouri, students in the Journalism II class put their education into practice producing and publishing a paper called The Spectrum. The students staffed all the roles of the paper, from developing stories to writing, editing, and design activities. Overseeing the group was a journalism teacher, who submitted proofs of each paper to the principal for final approval before publication.

While The Spectrum was the school’s paper, it was also distributed to community members, which helped to raise revenue that defrayed some of the program’s cost.

In May, at the end of the school term, the journalism teacher submitted the proofs of the paper’s final edition of the year to the principal as usual. Though most of the content was fine, two stories on two separate pages jumped out to the principal as inappropriate.

The first was a story about teen pregnancy and contained interviews with 3 students who were or had been pregnant. The reporters had given the students fake names, but the principal felt that details in the story would make the students identifiable and therefore violate their privacy. At the same time, as a product of the school and part of its educational mission, the principal felt that the story was not fitting for younger students to read about.

The second story concerned divorce and contained an interview with a student that made potentially inflammatory statements about one of their parents. The intention of the staff was to change the student’s name, but the proof the principal received had not been changed yet. As a result, the principal felt that the student’s family should have had an opportunity to either respond or consent to the publication of the article.

Because the end of the school year was so close, the principal feared that there was not enough time to make changes and get the paper published and distributed before summer break. So, in consultation with their superiors, the principal removed the 2 pages with the 2 articles, changing the 6-page paper into a 4-page paper, with a total of 7 stories cut.

The journalism students did not find out about the changes until the papers were delivered. Following the revelation, the principal met with the paper’s editors, where he said that the articles were, “inappropriate, personal, sensitive, and unsuitable.” In response, the students printed copies of the offending articles and distributed them around the school themselves.

Ultimately, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU, an editor and 2 reporters for the paper filed a lawsuit alleging that the principal had violated their First Amendment rights of free speech. They wanted the courts to provide injunctive relief and monetary damages.

The District Court did not provide the injunctive relief the students sought, arguing that the principal had not violated their First Amendment rights. It was their opinion that the concerns around privacy and journalism fairness were reasonable and that the principal was justified in removing those articles.

The students appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where the District Court’s ruling was reversed. In the view of the Court of Appeals, the newspaper had expanded beyond the scope of the school, with distribution into the community. As a result, the paper was a public forum and should not be censored.

The school district appealed the decision of the Court of Appeals to the Supreme Court, which now puts the case before our justices to decide.

Ruling of the Relitigated Justices

Click here to show how the Relitigated justices ruled on the case…

Votes By Party

Hazelwood

3

Argued by Jarret

v.

Kuhlmeier

0

Argued by Nikki

Votes By Justice

Chief Justice Mike

Hazelwood

Justice Adam

Hazelwood

Justice Chris

Hazelwood

References