[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 39 (Thursday, March 10, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1432-S1433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    STUDENT'S FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS

  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about 
one of our most cherished rights as U.S. citizens; that is, the freedom 
of speech and why allowing our children and young people to exercise 
this right at a young age is critical to learning and understanding 
complex and tough issues and ideas.
  The ability to effectively teach and learn journalism--and for other 
students to be challenged to engage in public discourse on tough 
issues--was severely hindered by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 1988 
in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier. The Hazelwood case 
legitimized a school's decision to remove material about divorce and 
teen pregnancy from the pages of a student newspaper on the grounds 
that the material was overly mature for a high school audience.
  Justice William Brennan, one of the First Amendment's greatest 
judicial champions, dissented from that ruling in words that resonate 
with us here today. He said: ``Instead of teaching children to respect 
the diversity of ideas that is fundamental to the American system and 
that our Constitution is a living reality, not parchment preserved 
under glass, the Court today teaches youth to discount important 
principles of our government as mere platitudes.''
  History has vindicated Justice Brennan's dire warning. Students 
regularly report that they have been prevented from discussing matters 
of public importance in the pages of student media or, perhaps worse, 
they have restrained themselves from even attempting to address an 
issue of social or political concern in fear of adverse consequences. 
That is not an environment that values and empowers student voices, and 
it is not a climate conducive to the effective learning of civic 
participation. We can and must do better.
  On the 25th anniversary of the Hazelwood decision in 2013, every 
major journalism education organization in the Nation enacted a 
resolution calling on schools and colleges to abandon reliance on the 
Hazelwood level of institutional control. The sentiment was perhaps 
best expressed by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass 
Communication, the largest organization in the country of college 
journalism instructors, which stated that ``no legitimate . . . purpose 
is served by the censorship of student journalism even if it reflects 
unflatteringly on school policies and programs, candidly discusses 
sensitive social and political issues, or voices opinions challenging 
to majority views on a matter of public concern.''
  Since then, nine States have statutes protecting the independence of 
student journalists to report on issues of public concern without fear, 
and two have comparable protections by way of the State board of 
education rules. The combined experience of these 11 States spans well 
over 160 years, demonstrating that young people are fully capable of 
exercising a measure of legally protected press freedom responsibly and 
without incident or harm.
  I am proud to say that my own home State of North Dakota established 
a position of national leadership by enacting the John Wall New Voices 
of North Dakota Act in 2015. The statute was named in memory of a truly 
amazing educator, John Wall, who lived his own civics lesson by running 
for the North Dakota House of Representatives, where he served with 
great distinction for 10 years after retiring from a 34-year career as 
a public school teacher.
  The New Voices Act passed the North Dakota State Legislature with 
bipartisan sponsorship and without a single negative vote. That is 
truly an amazing fact. As we think about the importance of student 
journalism, the importance of voicing opinions and the importance of 
learning the value of participation through the First Amendment or 
through speech, I am often reminded of a personal incident that I had 
in my family.
  My daughter was not on the school newspaper when she was in high 
school, but she frequently wrote a column. One column that she wrote 
generated a lot of controversy in a very small town at a time when it 
was much more controversial. It was an article that promoted marriage 
equality. She ended up getting a lot of grief and a lot of negative 
attention as a result of writing that article. My daughter is pretty 
opinionated. So it didn't bother her too much.
  But many years later, I received a letter from a mother. That letter 
from a mother talked about how she was in a same-sex relationship, had 
been most

[[Page S1433]]

of her life and most of her daughter's life, and how once my daughter 
had published this article in the Mandan school newspaper, it changed 
the outcome. It changed the way her daughter went to school every day 
because she knew she wasn't alone. She knew someone was there in that 
school who understood her challenges and supported her family. So where 
it may not move big issues--and it may not be a big, moving example 
like Hazelwood--it can, in fact, change outcomes. The ability to 
express yourself, the ability to be part of a community where we have 
open ideas is absolutely instrumental and critical to the future of our 
country.
  When you look at the restrictions that still today are put on student 
press and student newspapers, we know we have to do better.
  I applaud the new voices of North Dakota organization and its 
founder, Professor Steven Listopad of Valley City State University and 
those teachers, professors, and students around the country who engage 
in similar efforts for helping shine the Nation's attention on the 
urgent need to protect meaningful and candid journalism so that young 
people have an opportunity to participate and drive the civic dialogue 
about the world in which they live and they will eventually lead.
  The skills learned and developed by student journalists and the roles 
they can play in driving public conversation among their peers speak to 
the indispensable role that journalism can play--if adequately 
supported by our schools--in educating the next generation for the 
careers of the future and for preparing our children to discuss, 
debate, and lead on important and controversial issues.
  I think that, as we are moving forward and taking a look at what can 
be done, it is important that we all appreciate that the First 
Amendment is not something that you should just learn in school books. 
It is something that you must exercise. And the sooner you exercise 
that First Amendment right to speech, the sooner we recognize that 
young voices in this country are as critical as older voices and no 
student should be restricted or prevented from expressing an opinion 
and the stronger we will grow in our democracy.
  I look forward to continuing to work on this issue. I look forward to 
taking on the difficult task of talking about what we can do nationally 
to advance this, but I mainly came to the floor to applaud the great 
State of North Dakota for recognizing the importance of students' First 
Amendment rights.
  I encourage all Members in this Chamber to examine what happens at 
home with students' First Amendment rights, to provide leadership, to 
promote those rights in their State, and to potentially look at how we 
can reverse the Hazelwood decision so that we can grow a more 
confident, a more educated, and a more diverse population for our 
future.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SASSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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