1. 1:6 Speech that is not protected by the First Amendment

2. The First Amendment Does NOT protect Material that is obscene for minors. –Obscenity has been defined through numerous Supreme Court cases. –In order for something to be considered obscene, according to the court definition, it must meet several requirements.

3. The First Amendment does NOT protect Material that is obscene for minors must meet three requirements: –1) Be something that the average person, using contemporary community standards (standards of the community in a particular area) would find appeals to a minor’s prurient (unhealthy) interest in sex.

4. The First Amendment does NOT protect Material that is obscene for minors must also meet this requirement: –2) The publication pictures or describes, in an obviously offensive way, sexual conduct and lewd exhibition of the reproductive organs

5. The First Amendment does NOT protect Material that is obscene for minors must also meet this last requirement –3) The complete work lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

6. The First Amendment does NOT protect Various state legislatures have also defined obscenity –These definitions would help define the local community standards.

7. The First Amendment does NOT protect obscenity Most legal scholars believe that indecent or vulgar language, profanity, is not considered obscene according to the Supreme Court standards. –However, many school Codes of Conduct prohibit profanity. –Thus the use of profanity in a school paper is a SCHOOL issue and not a legal one.

8. Obscenity and Profanity As a SCHOOL issue then publication staffs have to find out if the school publication has been declared an open forum for student expression or a closed forum.

9. Obscenity and Profanity Middle school staffs should avoid using profanity in quotations by: –Asking the person who uses it to rephrase his or her answer. –Paraphrase the answer without the offending words.

10. Obscenity and Profanity In any school publication, the use of profanity will overshadow any content or good that an article would contain. –Material adapted from Candace Perkins Bowen, Scholastic Media Program coordinator, Kent State University and John Bowen, adjunct instructor, Kent State University and JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission chair. Used with permission.