U.S. Supreme Court Justices OK Censorship of Student Newspapers

Having taught high school journalism for a number of years and having recently been under the heel of the likes of a Robert Reynolds, the Missouri high school principal who censored the student newspaper The Spectrum, I find the Supreme Court’s ruling that supported Reynold’s action and diminished high school students’ right to free expression in school-sponsored publications not only disquieting and ominous, but also sadly predictable.

As I was in the habit of saying each semester to my journalism students, that is, before being fired by the principal: “Without our Bill of Rights, there would be but little difference between the American form of democracy and the Russian form of communism. You are very fortunate to be citizens of this country where your rights to free expression are secure.”

PAUL A. CAVALLO

Ramona