Vermont high school journalists stand up to censorship and win
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Four Vermont high school journalists have gotten a lesson of a lifetime when they stood up to censorship in their school newspaper and won based on a new law.
On Sept. 10, the Burlington students posted a story online they wrote about a school employee facing unprofessional conduct charges.
The next morning, the principal asked the students’ adviser to take it down. The students quickly talked to legal experts.
Days later, the principal said the story could be reposted since other media had covered it. The school did another about-face Sept. 15 and said it would change its media policy, based on the New Voices law. Thirteen other states have passed similar legislation.
Seventeen-year-old Halle Newman says she’s learned to stand up for herself, what she believes in and their rights as a student press.
