Hazelwood+v.+Kuhlmeier



__**Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier**__ Argued October 13, 1987 Decided January 13, 1988

The [|Hazelwood School District vs Kuhlmeier] was a case involving former high school students against the school district and officials. The students argued that the deletion of articles from their school newspaper violated their [|First Amendment] right to freedom of speech and press. However, the school fought back with the argument that certain rights were not necessarily applicable considering it was a school run paper. In a 5 to 3 decision (justices [|Rehinquist], [|White], [|Stevens], [|O'Connor], and [|Scalia] voting in favor of the school) it was decided that "no First Amendment violation had occurred".

The students argued that the deletion of the pages containing articles on controversial topics such as "teen pregnancy" and "divorce" was a violation of their freedom of speech. They believed they had the right to release whatever they wanted to in their articles and the stopping of such (their paper having been established in 1983) was unconstitutional. [|14th Amendment] rights were a concern to these students as well. They felt that they could not be denied their rights without a valid reasoning and due process if they were to be denied.



The school on the other hand believed they were completely justified in their actions. They argued that because it was a school sponsored & school run paper, the students rights "were not the same and equal as the rights of other adults in other settings". The principle also argued that the particular columns in question violated the privacy of the pregnant girls by calling attention to them and in some cases being very obvious about who was being discussed. Also, in the column about divorce, a girl's name was mentioned in a negative comment towards her father, which he said was unfair without the permission of the parents. The school's argument is based upon the [|10th Amendment], which states that any laws not declared by the federal government are left up to the states for decision. Since the case did not concern federal rights, it was up to the state how to regulate and mandate the freedoms the students were given.



The case went through two lower courts before reaching the Supreme decision. In the District Court, the students lost the case on the grounds that the school being a state run public school, they had the decision whether or not to deny what the students could write. However, when they brought it to the Appeals court, they won on ground that the students are entitled to freedom of speech. Having a 50-50 in their case, they decided to take it a step up and bring the case to the federal court. The [|Supreme Court], the country's highest judicial tribunal. As stated in the beginning, the school won against the students for the belief that in a public school, and because it was a school sponsored paper, the students had to obey the principal's preferences.



"The case before us aptly illustrates how readily school officials (and courts) can camouflage viewpoint discrimination as the 'mere' protection of students from sensitive topics."[| (Justice William Brennan)]