Welcome to my blog. My name is Michael Appel. As a senior at
BASIS Scottsdale High School, I am conducting a Senior Research Project during
my final trimester. My experience as an editor of the BASIS Gazette provoked my interest in censorship of the press, in
particular the application of the First Amendment in the context of America's
high schools. While the U.S. Supreme Court in the Tinker case settled that students do not leave their First
Amendment rights at the school door in 1969, the exact extent of students'
freedom of speech has remained open to debate during the 27 years following the
Court's 1988 ruling in Hazelwood.
My research project poses the question: Should Arizona enact
"Anti-Hazelwood"
legislation to protect the First Amendment rights of student journalists? To
answer this question, I will survey Arizona public high schools about both
school administrative policy and student journalistic practice regarding school
censorship, in the forms of prior restraint, prior review, and punishment, to
weigh Hazelwood's effect on the
exercise of free speech. The survey data documenting the existence and extent
of school censorship over school-sponsored publications in Arizona's public
high schools will be used to evaluate the need for Arizona to adopt a state law
declaring all student publications to be public forums. Researching legal
precedent will contrast two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning school
censorship: the robust First Amendment protection for student free expression
under Tinker v. Des Moines School
District, 393 U.S. 503, 89 S. Ct. 733, 21 L. Ed. 2d 731 (1969), and the
severe curtailment of student free speech in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, 484 U.S. 260, 108 S.
Ct. 562, 98 L. Ed. 2d 592 (1988). An analysis of lower-court decisions
interpreting Hazelwood's standard
will yield a trend of increasing encroachment upon free speech in schools,
directly allowing school officials wide latitude in justifying their censorship
and indirectly encouraging self-censorship by the student journalists
themselves. "Anti-Hazelwood"
laws in seven other states will be addressed as models for Arizona.
During my internship at a law firm, I will delve into the
details of the daily practice of law.
Shadowing an experienced civil defense attorney, I will be privy to the
procedural and substantive aspects of the law: researching case law, filing
motions, taking depositions, negotiating settlements, directing mediations, and
attending trials. My status as an observer will allow me to grasp a fuller
picture of the legal practice.
