The effect of
this ruling hinges on what a judge would define as "legitimate pedagogical reason". I
was in high school and writing for the newspaper when this ruling came out, and we had an issue
at our school where the Principal wanted to censor out stories that dealt with topics they felt
were too controversial, such as abortion or teen drinking and drug use.
My
journalism adviser threatened to resign over it, as he felt it was a first amendment right, and
that this was not a pedagogical issue, but a personal one for the Principal. The Principal
argued that since the newspaper was funded with public dollars, the same rules as a private
newspaper did not apply, and the concerns of parents who did not want to fund stories of that
nature were valid. In the end, the School Board used Hazelwood as a reason
to back the principal and my adviser resigned.
I think the practical result
of the ruling was that more and more schools simply do not have school newspapers or journalism
classes.
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