Bill Text: NY S00068 | 2025-2026 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Enacts the student journalist free speech act to protect student speech at educational institutions unless such speech is libelous, an invasion of privacy, or incites students to commit an unlawful act, violate school policies, or to materially and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the school.

Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 17-1)

Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-08 - REFERRED TO EDUCATION [S00068 Detail]

Download: New_York-2025-S00068-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                           68

                               2025-2026 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                       (Prefiled)

                                     January 8, 2025
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens. KAVANAGH, BRISPORT, BROUK, CLEARE, COMRIE, COONEY,
          FERNANDEZ, GONZALEZ, HARCKHAM, HOYLMAN-SIGAL,  JACKSON,  MAY,  O'MARA,
          RAMOS,  RIVERA, SALAZAR, SEPULVEDA, STAVISKY -- read twice and ordered
          printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee  on  Educa-
          tion

        AN  ACT  to amend the education law, in relation to enacting the student
          journalist free speech act

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1. The education law is amended by adding a new article 18 to
     2  read as follows:
     3                                 ARTICLE 18
     4                     STUDENT JOURNALIST FREE SPEECH ACT
     5  Section 860. Short title.
     6          861. Definitions.
     7          862. Student journalist free speech rights.
     8          863. Exemptions.
     9          864. Liability.
    10    § 860. Short title. This article shall be known and may  be  cited  as
    11  the "student journalist free speech act".
    12    §  861.  Definitions.  For  the purposes of this article the following
    13  terms shall have the following meanings:
    14    1. "Educational institution" means a public high school.
    15    2. "School-sponsored media" means any material that is prepared, writ-
    16  ten, published, or broadcast by a student journalist at  an  educational
    17  institution,  distributed  or generally made available to members of the
    18  student body, and prepared under the direction of a student media  advi-
    19  sor.  "School-sponsored  media"  shall  not  include  media intended for
    20  distribution or transmission solely in the classroom in which the  media
    21  is produced.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00278-01-5
        S. 68                               2

     1    3.  "Student  journalist"  means  a student enrolled in an educational
     2  institution who gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs,  records,
     3  or prepares information for dissemination in school-sponsored media.
     4    4. "Student media advisor" means an individual employed, appointed, or
     5  designated  by  an  educational  institution  to  supervise  or  provide
     6  instruction relating to school-sponsored media.
     7    § 862. Student journalist free speech rights.  1. Except as  otherwise
     8  provided in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, a student
     9  journalist shall have the right to exercise free speech and of the press
    10  in  school-sponsored media, regardless of whether the media is supported
    11  financially by the educational institution or by use of  the  facilities
    12  of an educational institution or produced in conjunction with a class in
    13  which the student is enrolled.
    14    2.  Subject  to section eight hundred sixty-three of this article, the
    15  appropriate student journalist shall be responsible for determining  the
    16  news, opinion, and feature content of school-sponsored media.
    17    3. Nothing in this section shall preclude a student media advisor from
    18  teaching  professional  standards  of  English and journalism to student
    19  journalists or from grading the performance of a student  in  accordance
    20  with such standards.
    21    4. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official
    22  publications  of  an  educational  institution  except  for the material
    23  described in section eight hundred sixty-three of this article.
    24    5. Educational institution administrators shall  have  the  burden  of
    25  demonstrating justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of
    26  student expression under this article.
    27    6. No student media advisor or employee shall be dismissed, suspended,
    28  disciplined,  reassigned,  transferred,  or otherwise retaliated against
    29  solely for acting to protect a pupil engaged in the  conduct  authorized
    30  under  this  article;  and  further no student media advisor or employee
    31  shall be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned,  transferred  or
    32  otherwise  retaliated  against  solely for an action, undertaken in good
    33  faith with this article, which results in the prohibition of the  publi-
    34  cation of speech pursuant to this article.
    35    7.  Political  expression  by students in school-sponsored media shall
    36  not be deemed the use of public funds for political purposes.
    37    § 863. Exemptions. Nothing in this article  shall  impose  a  duty  on
    38  educational  institution administrators to review school-sponsored media
    39  prior to publication. To the  extent  that  an  educational  institution
    40  administrator  chooses to engage in  pre-publication review, the follow-
    41  ing forms of expression shall not be protected by this article:
    42    1. Expression that is libelous, slanderous or obscene;
    43    2. Expression that constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy;
    44    3. Expression that violates federal or state law; or
    45    4. Expression that incites students to commit an  unlawful  act  where
    46  such    unlawful  act  would  be  both  imminent and likely to occur, to
    47  violate the policies of the educational institution,  or  to  materially
    48  and  substantially  disrupt  the  orderly  operation of such educational
    49  institution.
    50    § 864. Liability. No expression made by students in  the  exercise  of
    51  free  speech  or freedom of the press protected by this article shall be
    52  deemed to be an expression of policy, opinion or position of the  educa-
    53  tional institution, nor shall any such expression be considered to be an
    54  endorsement in any way by the educational institution and no educational
    55  institution,  student media advisor, employee, parent, legal guardian or
    56  administrator of an educational institution shall be held liable in  any
        S. 68                               3

     1  civil  or  criminal  action  for  any  expression  made  or published by
     2  students, except in cases of willful or wanton  misconduct.  Nothing  in
     3  this  section  shall be construed to create any private action on behalf
     4  of  a student other than to seek injunctive relief allowing the publica-
     5  tion of the speech in question.
     6    § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.