Bill Text: NY S02958 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Enacts the student journalist free speech act to protect student speech at educational institutions unless such speech is libelous, an invasion of privacy, or incites students to commit an unlawful act, violate school policies, or to materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school.
Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 12-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-05 - REFERRED TO EDUCATION [S02958 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-S02958-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 2958 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 26, 2021 ___________ Introduced by Sens. KAVANAGH, BRESLIN, HOYLMAN, JACKSON, MAY, O'MARA, STAVISKY -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Education AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student journalist free speech act The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 to 2 read as follows: 3 ARTICLE 18 4 STUDENT JOURNALIST FREE SPEECH ACT 5 Section 860. Short title. 6 861. Definitions. 7 862. Student journalist free speech rights. 8 863. Exemptions. 9 864. Liability. 10 § 860. Short title. This article shall be known and may be cited as 11 the "student journalist free speech act". 12 § 861. Definitions. For the purposes of this article the following 13 terms shall have the following meanings: 14 1. "Educational institution" means a public high school. 15 2. "School-sponsored media" means any material that is prepared, writ- 16 ten, published, or broadcast by a student journalist at an educational 17 institution, distributed or generally made available to members of the 18 student body, and prepared under the direction of a student media advi- 19 sor. "School-sponsored media" shall not include media intended for 20 distribution or transmission solely in the classroom in which the media 21 is produced. 22 3. "Student journalist" means a student enrolled in an educational 23 institution who gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs, records, 24 or prepares information for dissemination in school-sponsored media. 25 4. "Student media advisor" means an individual employed, appointed, or 26 designated by an educational institution to supervise or provide 27 instruction relating to school-sponsored media. EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD03638-02-1S. 2958 2 1 § 862. Student journalist free speech rights. 1. Except as otherwise 2 provided in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, a student 3 journalist shall have the right to exercise free speech and of the press 4 in school-sponsored media, regardless of whether the media is supported 5 financially by the educational institution or by use of the facilities 6 of an educational institution or produced in conjunction with a class in 7 which the student is enrolled. 8 2. Subject to section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, the 9 appropriate student journalist shall be responsible for determining the 10 news, opinion, and feature content of school-sponsored media. 11 3. Nothing in this section shall preclude a student media advisor from 12 teaching professional standards of English and journalism to student 13 journalists or from grading the performance of a student in accordance 14 with such standards. 15 4. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official 16 publications of an educational institution except for the material 17 described in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article. 18 5. Educational institution administrators shall have the burden of 19 demonstrating justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of 20 student expression under this article. 21 6. No student media advisor or employee shall be dismissed, suspended, 22 disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against 23 solely for acting to protect a pupil engaged in the conduct authorized 24 under this article; and further no student media advisor or employee 25 shall be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred or 26 otherwise retaliated against solely for an action, undertaken in good 27 faith with this article, which results in the prohibition of the publi- 28 cation of speech pursuant to this article. 29 7. Political expression by students in school-sponsored media shall 30 not be deemed the use of public funds for political purposes. 31 § 863. Exemptions. Nothing in this article shall impose a duty on 32 educational institution administrators to review school-sponsored media 33 prior to publication. To the extent that an educational institution 34 administrator chooses to engage in pre-publication review, the follow- 35 ing forms of expression shall not be protected by this article: 36 1. Expression that is libelous, slanderous or obscene; 37 2. Expression that constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy; 38 3. Expression that violates federal or state law; or 39 4. Expression that incites students to commit an unlawful act where 40 such unlawful act would be both imminent and likely to occur, to 41 violate the policies of the educational institution, or to materially 42 and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of such educational 43 institution. 44 § 864. Liability. No expression made by students in the exercise of 45 free speech or freedom of the press protected by this article shall be 46 deemed to be an expression of policy, opinion or position of the educa- 47 tional institution, nor shall any such expression be considered to be an 48 endorsement in any way by the educational institution and no educational 49 institution, student media advisor, employee, parent, legal guardian or 50 administrator of an educational institution shall be held liable in any 51 civil or criminal action for any expression made or published by 52 students, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct. Nothing in 53 this section shall be construed to create any private action on behalf 54 of a student other than to seek injunctive relief allowing the publica- 55 tion of the speech in question. 56 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
