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Student Press Law Center
The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is a non-profit organization that aims to promote, support and defend press freedom rights for student journalists at high schools and colleges in the United States. It is dedicated to student free-press rights and provides information, advice and legal assistance at no charge for students and educators.
SPLC was founded in 1974. The Kennedy Memorial Foundation and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press created the center at the recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into High School Journalism in Captive Voices, a book that found that censorship of student media in the United States was pervasive and identified the need for an organization that would stand up for students’ First Amendment rights. The center became a separate corporation in 1979. It is the only legal assistance agency in the United States with the primary mission of educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the freedom of expression of student news media to address issues and express themselves free from censorship.
SPLC is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) corporation. It is headquartered in the University of California Building in Washington, D.C. It was previously headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, where it shared a suite of offices with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In 2024 the organization celebrated its 50th birthday at the headquarters of the New York Times.
The Student Press Law Center:
SPLC has advocated for the passage of "New Voices" legislation at the state level to protect student journalists' rights. Its efforts led to proposed legislation in ten states: in Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Iowa, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Texas. Thanks to the grassroots movement behind New Voices — spearheaded nationally by SPLC — West Virginia became the 17th state with such legislation in 2023.
In 2015, SPLC aided Prosper High School student journalists who were censored and removed from their student newspaper after reporting on a teacher criticizing their colleague for reporting a school-related incident of inappropriate sexual conduct to police.
In 2018, the center supported two student reporters whose high school administration shut down their student newspaper when their investigating revealed a teacher was fired for exchanging inappropriate text messages with an underage student.
In 2021, attorneys from the Student Press Law Center, alongside other free-speech groups, submitted an amicus curiae in the supreme court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., which stated the court had unconstitutionally established students as second-class citizens as a consequence of school enrollment.
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Student Press Law Center
The Student Press Law Center (SPLC) is a non-profit organization that aims to promote, support and defend press freedom rights for student journalists at high schools and colleges in the United States. It is dedicated to student free-press rights and provides information, advice and legal assistance at no charge for students and educators.
SPLC was founded in 1974. The Kennedy Memorial Foundation and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press created the center at the recommendation of the Commission of Inquiry into High School Journalism in Captive Voices, a book that found that censorship of student media in the United States was pervasive and identified the need for an organization that would stand up for students’ First Amendment rights. The center became a separate corporation in 1979. It is the only legal assistance agency in the United States with the primary mission of educating high school and college journalists about the rights and responsibilities embodied in the First Amendment and supporting the freedom of expression of student news media to address issues and express themselves free from censorship.
SPLC is a non-partisan 501(c)(3) corporation. It is headquartered in the University of California Building in Washington, D.C. It was previously headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, where it shared a suite of offices with the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. In 2024 the organization celebrated its 50th birthday at the headquarters of the New York Times.
The Student Press Law Center:
SPLC has advocated for the passage of "New Voices" legislation at the state level to protect student journalists' rights. Its efforts led to proposed legislation in ten states: in Hawaii, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Iowa, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Texas. Thanks to the grassroots movement behind New Voices — spearheaded nationally by SPLC — West Virginia became the 17th state with such legislation in 2023.
In 2015, SPLC aided Prosper High School student journalists who were censored and removed from their student newspaper after reporting on a teacher criticizing their colleague for reporting a school-related incident of inappropriate sexual conduct to police.
In 2018, the center supported two student reporters whose high school administration shut down their student newspaper when their investigating revealed a teacher was fired for exchanging inappropriate text messages with an underage student.
In 2021, attorneys from the Student Press Law Center, alongside other free-speech groups, submitted an amicus curiae in the supreme court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., which stated the court had unconstitutionally established students as second-class citizens as a consequence of school enrollment.