The authority of administrators to censor school-sponsored media in Washington state would be limited under Senate Bill 5946, recently heard by the Senate Committee on Judiciary.

Aside from House Bill 1307 — a similar bill that died in the House Judiciary Committee after its second reading in the 2007-2008 biennium — three court cases have helped shape current student media law.

Students were guaranteed freedom of expression protected by the First Amendment in the 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District.

However, in 1988, those First Amendment rights were limited for high-school students through the Supreme Court’s decision on Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier.

The court ruled that school-sponsored publications can be censored by school officials, if their decision is “reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.” If administrators think student media is “poorly written,” “biased,” “inappropriate” and “inconsistent with the values of a civilized order,” the court ruled that they could censor it.

In the Hazelwood case, the court did not say whether officials at colleges and universities should be held to the same standard.

However, Hazelwood was applied to college students by the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the 2005 case Hosty v. Carter, involving Governors State University in Illinois.

According to the bill’s digest, “[Senate Bill 5946] declares an intent to ensure free speech and free press protections for both high school and college students in the state.”

Additionally, it would ensure that school officials could not be held legally responsible for school-sponsored media unless they influenced its content.

Although the bill would decrease the liability of school officials in the event of a libel lawsuit, it wouldn’t increase the liability of students, said Mike Hiestand, a consulting attorney for the Student Press Law Center.

“Student journalists have always been responsible for what they publish,” Hiestand said. “Making students aware of their liability is a good and necessary part of teaching young journalists.”

However, because administrators must deal with the potential damage caused by student publications, they should have some power in publishing decisions, said Jerry Bender, director of governmental relations for the Association of Washington State School Principals. Bender testified against the bill.

“If we’re going to be there as administrators when the plane crashes, we want to be there when the plane takes off,” Bender said.

Dan Steele of the Washington State School Directors’ Association also testified in opposition to the bill.

“We have to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars,” Steele said. “We certainly don’t advocate for censorship, but there are certain times when certain limits are necessary.”

But, Hiestand said, the idea of free speech promoted by the bill should be supported by both political parties.

“If conservatives or liberals are not willing to support free speech protections for students for partisan reasons, they should be prepared to face the fact that the views they espouse will, sooner or later, be the ones that are censored,” Hiestand said.

Legislation similar to Senate Bill 5946 has already been passed in seven states: Alaska, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts and Oregon.

Reach reporter Kaitlin Strohschein at news@dailyuw.com.