Analysis | Fighting censorship and celebrating Student Press Freedom Day

Student Press Freedom Day is an opportunity for journalists, students, educators and advocates to celebrate student journalism rights and defend the first amendment. Graphic by ANGELINA HICKS, editor-in-chief

Few states advocate for student journalists’ rights like California. The state has laws that protect student journalists to the same degree as professional journalists.

The California Student Free Expression Law provides student journalists attending California public high schools protection against administrative censorship. California Education Code 48907 allows student journalists to publish content to their liking, and it also protects them from censorship and prior restraint by school administrators.

Not many states have these protections. Even so, efforts to censor students in journalism are still present, even in the Golden State.

On Student Press Freedom Day, celebrated on Feb. 23, journalism organizations across the country reflected on issues regarding censorship that still persist today.

One censorship controversy dominated national news back in September 2022. Administration tried to censor the student newspaper at Daniel Pearl Magnet School in Los Angeles after the students and adviser refused to remove the name of a school staff member in one of their stories. 

The staff member, a librarian, decided not to receive the mandated COVID-19 vaccine, according to reporting from the students at the high school. The students’ reporting recounts that she ended up leaving the position due to the refusal, prompting the coverage from The Pearl Post.

The article cited Greta Enszer, the librarian, by name. After the story, administration requested the students remove Enszer’s name from the piece, but they refused.

The original article from The Pearl Post was written in November 2021, and the newspaper’s adviser received a three-day suspension in September 2022 after refusing to remove Enszer’s name.

The newspaper spoke out against this action, calling to attention that in California, student journalists are granted much of the same rights as professional journalists.

PEN America and the First Amendment Coalition hosted an online event Thursday to hear how the students and advisers from The Pearl Post overcame censorship and disciplinary retaliation.

Adriana Chavira, a journalism teacher at Daniel Pearl Magnet School and the school newspaper’s adviser, alongside three writers from The Pearl Post — Delilah Brumer, Gabrielle Lashley and Nathalie Miranda — discussed how the experience changed their perspective on journalism to celebrate Student Press Freedom Day.

“(This) has made me more aware of my rights as a student journalist,” Brumer, senior and current editor-in-chief of The Pearl Post, told The Panther. “Actually experiencing censorship and fighting back and learning about these laws and protections has been really eye-opening. It re-ignited this passion in me. I’ve known I wanted to be a journalist for a while now, but it definitely galvanized me to continue doing my work, to continue reporting and to also be very aware of the quality of the reporting.”

Lashley, another senior who helped work on the stories in 2022, emphasized the importance of factual reporting when it comes to being challenged after publication.

“This gave everybody on staff more confidence in their work, and it also showed me the power I have as a student journalist,” Lashley told The Panther. “That also showed me how important solid reporting is. What got us through the situation was that we had solid, truthful, news-worthy reporting. Obviously, those are the virtues we as journalists live by, but this hammered in how important it is, especially when it comes to issues like censorship.” 

Hadar Harris, the executive director of the Student Press Law Center, explained the work her nonprofit does to fight for student press freedom across the country.

“Only 16 states have student press freedom protections,” Harris said at the event. “At the Student Press Law Center, we help to coordinate a whole network of student-led activists who are working state by state to get student press freedom protections passed by law,” Harris said at the event. “Last year, Hawaii became the 16th state. We are coming up to a year from their adoption in May of student press freedom protection.”

Harris said that there are a variety of student press protection bills currently pending — and she expects more this year — in states like Kentucky, West Virginia, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York.

Miranda, currently a first year at Los Angeles Pierce College, wrote the original story that sparked the entire controversy. She said she was able to persevere through the experience by relying on her editors and fellow staff members.

“When everything was going on, I was getting a lot of criticism, even from people in my own family,” Miranda said at the event. “It was scary and it was stressful, but I was firm in my beliefs that we didn’t do anything wrong. It took a while for me to get that point of confidence.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to more accurately reflect the fact that all information in this story about Daniel Pearl Magnet High School is attributed to the original reporting of the students at The Pearl Post and reporters at The Los Angeles Times.