I know what I should do with my teen pregnancy essay. Start a ‘zine and publish it there. The school doesn’t own it, so they can’t stop me from publishing what I want, right? Yes. If you want to publish an unofficial or “underground” newspaper or magazine, then the First Amendment and Pennsylvania law gives you more protection. School officials can’t ban your underground newspaper or pamphlet just because they don’t like what you say in it. They also can’t stop you from passing it out at school unless you “substantially” disrupt school activities. You do, however, have to follow reasonable school rules that tell you when you’re allowed to hand out your newspaper at school. Remember, this only applies to underground newspapers handed out at school. Your school shouldn’t be able to tell you when or how to hand out your newspaper away from school grounds, but students have been disciplined for this. Since the school would not own an underground newspaper, does that mean I would have more freedom to write what I want than in the school newspaper? Yes, with some restrictions. Students publish underground newspapers using their own resources and their own time. So, even though schools have some control over school-sponsored student expression, they shouldn’t be able to control this purely private student expression. While school officials can make you get approval before publishing an article in the official school paper, they shouldn’t make you get approval for articles published in an underground paper. Be aware, however, that your school is likely to say that it can ban “indecent” speech anywhere in the school. And, simply because you print it yourself, doesn’t mean you can use profanity or include lewd pictures. School rules about swearing and other speech restriction still apply to anything brought onto school grounds. But, unlike with official school newspapers, the school can’t ban ideas just because they don’t like them. Therefore, an article or information about teen sexuality that could be banned in an official publication probably can’t be censored if you print it privately. Our underground newspaper is going to include an editorial criticizing the school board’s decision to spend extra money on metal detectors that were recently installed at our school. There are a lot of students who want the extra security and we don’t want people to know who wrote the article. At the same time, we think it is an important idea and we don’t want to censor ourselves. Do we have to put our names on the newspaper? Unfortunately, there’s no clear answer. Under the Code, schools can make you put your name on literature you hand out at school. But having to identify yourself in a publication might stop you from saying something—especially something for which you might be harassed. That’s why, outside of the school, the right to publish anonymously is protected by the Constitution. While schools still have much authority to control what is brought onto school grounds, even with privately printed newspapers and ’zines, that authority is much less over information posted from home on the Internet, as is discussed in the next section.
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