1. Limiting the 1st Amendment in Schools
Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier
Limiting the 1st Amendment in Schools

2. Just the facts…..
Students at Hazelwood High School wrote articles for their school newspaper called the SPECTRUM. The principal at the school acted as the final editor for all editions of the newspaper.

3. Just the facts……
The principal, Mr. Reynolds, decided that two articles were inappropriate for a school newspaper. To make it easier to remove those two articles, two entire pages were removed from the SPECTRUM.

4. Just the facts……
The newspaper staff that had worked so hard, was angry…. Very angry. They felt that their 1st Amendment right to FREE SPEECH had been violated so they brought their case before the federal courts.

5. What the court says…. The US DISTRICT COURT:
The court agreed with the school district.
They said that the school district CAN limit student speech.
Basically if the principal has a reasonable basis, he can edit school publication.

6. What the NEXT court say….
The US Court of Appeals:
The students are unhappy with this decision by the District Court and they “appeal” their case to the US Court of Appeals.
The appeals court reversed decision by the District Court, finding that the paper was a "public forum“. The court said that school officials could censor the newspaper’s content only under extreme circumstances.

7. The FINAL decision….
Unhappy with the ruling, the school appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. Here is what the US Supreme Court said… Public schools do not have to allow student speech if it is inconsistent with the schools' educational mission. Even if the government can't censor such speech outside of school, public schools have the authority to LIMIT that speech.