Bill > S00068

This bill, known as the Student Journalism Education Act, aims to protect the free speech and press rights of students in public high schools, referred to as "educational institutions," when they are creating "school-sponsored media," which includes any material prepared by a student journalist under the guidance of a faculty advisor and distributed to the student body. The act establishes that student journalists have the right to determine the content of school-sponsored media, and their advisors cannot be punished for protecting this right, with exceptions for speech that is libelous, an invasion of privacy, violates federal or state law, or incites students to commit an unlawful act, break school policies, or significantly disrupt the school's operations. Furthermore, educational institutions and their staff are generally protected from liability for student expression, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct, and the bill clarifies that student political expression in school media is not considered the use of public funds for political purposes.