Kuhlmeier v. Hazelwood School Dist., 85
| Decision Date | 27 August 1986 |
| Docket Number | No. 85,85 |
| Citation | 795 F.2d 1368 |
| Parties | , 33 Ed. Law Rep. 1021 Cathy KUHLMEIER; Leslie Smart; Lee Ann Tippett, Appellants, v. HAZELWOOD SCHOOL DISTRICT; Charles Sweeney; Joseph Donahue; Gwen Gerhardt; August Busch, Jr.; Ann Gibbson; James Arnac; Dr. Thomas Lawson; Robert Eugene Reynolds; Howard Emerson; Dr. Francis Huss, Appellees. Student Press Law Center and Journalism Education Association, Amici curiae, for appellants St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Inc., Amicus curiae. 1614. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit |
Robert P. Baine, Jr., Clayton, Mo., for appellees.
Before HEANEY, ARNOLD, and WOLLMAN, Circuit Judges.
The issue in this appeal is whether administrators of Hazelwood East High School violated the first amendment rights of the student staff of the school newspaper, Spectrum, by deleting two full pages of the May 13, 1983, edition because they objected to the content of two of the articles on these pages. We hold that Spectrum is a public forum for the expression of student opinion and that the two articles objected to by the administrators could not reasonably have been forecast to materially disrupt classwork, give rise to substantial disorder, or invade the rights of others. Accordingly, we hold that the deletion of the two pages violated the first amendment rights of the student staff. We reverse and remand to the district court with directions to determine whether nominal damages should be awarded to the plaintiffs and, if so, the amount.
Appellants are three former Hazelwood East High School students who were staff members of Spectrum. Appellees are the Hazelwood School District, the Hazelwood school principal, the school superintendent, and the assistant superintendent.
Spectrum is the school newspaper at Hazelwood East. Produced by the Journalism II class, it is published eight to ten times each year. Student staff members determine the content and layout of the paper. During the spring semester of the 1982-83 school year, Robert Stergos taught Journalism II and served as Spectrum's faculty advisor. Although Stergos exercised minimal editorial control, he submitted each issue of Spectrum to Principal Robert Reynolds for prepublication review. Stergos approved of the articles to be published in the May 13, 1983 edition, in near final form, before he left the school district's employ on April 29, 1983.
Stergos' replacement, Howard Emerson, took the laid-out May 13 edition of Spectrum to the printers on May 6, 1983. He received the proofs back on May 10, and delivered them to Reynolds for approval. Reynolds directed Emerson to delete two Although pseudonyms were used for the girls in the pregnancy study, Reynolds subsequently testified that he thought they could be identified from the text. He was concerned with the divorce article because one student was named and gave reasons for her parents' divorce. He thought this inappropriate for publication because the parents had not consented, and were not given an opportunity to respond. Reynolds was unaware of the fact that Emerson had deleted the student's name from the copy of the article which was to be sent to the printer.
full pages containing five articles, only two of which he found objectionable. 1 Reynolds objected to one story which chronicled three Hazelwood East students' experiences with pregnancy, and another which discussed the impact of divorce on children. Reynolds gave Emerson no reason for the deletions
Reynolds did not inform the student authors of his decision; they learned of the deletions when the paper was released on May 13, 1983. They met with Reynolds that afternoon to discuss the deletions, and Reynolds told them the stories were inappropriate, personal, sensitive, and unsuitable. The students subsequently xeroxed the articles and distributed them to other students on the school premises. They were not punished for that act. 2
On August 19, 1983, three Spectrum staff members filed this first amendment action seeking injunctive relief, money damages, and a declaration that their first amendment rights were violated. The district court denied injunctive relief, 596 F.Supp. 1422, and held that the students' first amendment rights were not violated, 607 F.Supp. 1450.
On appeal, appellants contend that the district court erred in 1) determining that Spectrum was not a public forum, 2) determining that the district's censorship did not violate the students' first amendment rights, 3) refusing to invalidate the district's policies and regulations regarding student expression, and 4) denying them their right to a jury trial.
The starting point for any analysis of the first amendment rights of high school students is Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Community School Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 89 S.Ct. 733, 21 L.Ed.2d 731 (1969). There, the Court held a high school regulation prohibiting students from wearing black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War violated the first amendment. Tinker, 393 U.S. at 506, 89 S.Ct. at 736. The Court reasoned that secondary students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the school house gate." Id. at 506, 89 S.Ct. at 736. Those rights are not absolute, however, and must be "applied in light of the special circumstances of the school environment." Id. at 506, 89 S.Ct. at 736. Nevertheless, though the first amendment rights of students are not co-extensive with those of adults, student expression may be curtailed only when it "materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others." Id. at 513, 89 S.Ct. at 740; see Burnside v. Byars, 363 F.2d 744 (5th Cir.1966); Blackwell v. Issaquena, 363 F.2d 749 (5th Cir.1966).
Here, the district court concluded that in the context of a high school newspaper case, the Tinker test applies only to papers which are public forums. A standard more deferential to the interests of school officials is applied where the newspaper is an integral part of the school curriculum. The court found that Spectrum fell in the latter category because:
Spectrum was produced by members of the Journalism II class, which class was taught by a faculty member according to the Hazelwood East curriculum guide. * * * A textbook was used in the class, and a grade and academic credit was awarded for completion of the class. * * * The curriculum guide of Hazelwood East described the Journalism II class as a "laboratory situation", and Spectrum was the laboratory exercise. * * * Spectrum's staff was essentially restricted to students in the journalism class, said class met regularly in a classroom to work on Spectrum, and the nature of the out-of-class work required for Spectrum was not substantially greater than that required in other courses taught at Hazelwood East. * * * Board Policy 348.51 stated that school-sponsored publications, of which Spectrum was one, were "developed within the adopted curriculum". * * * The amount of extra-duty pay received by Mr. Stergos does not indicate that his services in connection with Spectrum were in the nature of an extracurricular activity. * * * [T]he nature and extent of the * * * teacher's control * * * with respect to almost every aspect of producing Spectrum, as well as the control or pre-publication review exercised by [others] Hazelwood officials in the past [.] * * * That control was not exercised to any lesser extent with respect to the articles in question.
We disagree with the district court and hold that Spectrum is a public forum because it was intended to be and operated as a conduit for student viewpoint. Although Spectrum was produced by the Journalism II class, it was a "student publication" in every sense. The students chose the staff members, determined the articles to be written and printed, and determined the content of those articles. As advisor Stergos testified:
Spectrum covered topics of general interest to the student body. Since 1976, it had published stories dealing with teenage dating, students' use of drugs and alcohol, the desegregation of the St. Louis schools, religions, cults, and runaways. With over 4,500 copies being sold in the 1982-83 school year ($1,166.84 in sales at $ .25 a copy), the newspaper was distributed to both the school and to the public. Additionally, at the beginning of each school year, Spectrum published a policy statement, 3 announcing that it was a student newspaper, that its publication policy would be guided by the first amendment, that the articles and editorials reflected the view of the staff and not the administrators or faculty of the high school, and that it followed the standards set forth in the journalism class textbook. 4
Moreover, in the January 14, 1980 issue of Spectrum, a non-by-lined editorial was printed entitled "The Right to Write." This editorial described Spectrum as follows:
Because Spectrum is a member of the press and especially because Spectrum is the sole press of the student body, Spectrum has a responsibility to that student body to be fair and unbiased in reporting, to point out injustice and, thereby, guard student freedoms, and to uphold a high level of journalistic excellence. This may, at times, cause Spectrum to be unpopular with some. Spectrum is not printed to be popular. Spectrum is printed to inform, entertain, guide and serve the student body--no more, and hopefully, no less,
And, Board Policy 348.5, entitled "Student Publications" provided: "Students are...
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