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| 1 | AN ACT concerning education.
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| 2 | Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
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| 3 | represented in the General Assembly:
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| 4 | Section 1. Short title. This Act may be cited as the Speech | ||||||
| 5 | Rights of Student Journalists Act. | ||||||
| 6 | Section 5. Definitions. As used in this Act: | ||||||
| 7 | "School official" means a school's principal or his or her | ||||||
| 8 | designee." | ||||||
| 9 | "School-sponsored media" means any material that is | ||||||
| 10 | prepared, substantially written, published, or broadcast by a | ||||||
| 11 | student journalist at a public school, distributed or generally | ||||||
| 12 | made available to members of the student body, and prepared | ||||||
| 13 | under the direction of a student media adviser. | ||||||
| 14 | School-sponsored media does not include media intended for | ||||||
| 15 | distribution or transmission solely in the classroom in which | ||||||
| 16 | the media is produced. | ||||||
| 17 | "Student journalist" means a public high school student who | ||||||
| 18 | gathers, compiles, writes, edits, photographs, records, or | ||||||
| 19 | prepares information for dissemination in school-sponsored | ||||||
| 20 | media. | ||||||
| 21 | "Student media adviser" means an individual employed, | ||||||
| 22 | appointed, or designated by a school district to supervise or | ||||||
| 23 | provide instruction relating to school-sponsored media. | ||||||
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| 1 | Section 10. Free speech. Except as otherwise provided in | ||||||
| 2 | Section 15 of this Act, a student journalist has the right to | ||||||
| 3 | exercise freedom of speech and of the press in school-sponsored | ||||||
| 4 | media, regardless of whether the media is supported financially | ||||||
| 5 | by the school district or by use of school facilities or | ||||||
| 6 | produced in conjunction with a class in which the student is | ||||||
| 7 | enrolled. Subject to Section 15 of this Act, the appropriate | ||||||
| 8 | student journalist is responsible for determining the news, | ||||||
| 9 | opinion, feature, and advertising content of school-sponsored | ||||||
| 10 | media. This Section shall not be construed to prevent a student | ||||||
| 11 | media adviser from teaching professional standards of English | ||||||
| 12 | and journalism to student journalists. There shall be no prior | ||||||
| 13 | restraint of material prepared for official school | ||||||
| 14 | publications except insofar as it violates Section 15 of this | ||||||
| 15 | Act. School officials shall have the burden of showing | ||||||
| 16 | justification without undue delay prior to a limitation of | ||||||
| 17 | student expression under this Act. | ||||||
| 18 | Section 15. Exceptions. This Act does not authorize or | ||||||
| 19 | protect expression by a student journalist that: | ||||||
| 20 | (1) is libelous, slanderous, or obscene; | ||||||
| 21 | (2) constitutes an unwarranted invasion of privacy; | ||||||
| 22 | (3) violates federal or State law; or | ||||||
| 23 | (4) incites students to commit an unlawful act, to | ||||||
| 24 | violate policies of the school district, or to materially | ||||||
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| 1 | and substantially disrupt the orderly operation of the | ||||||
| 2 | school. | ||||||
| 3 | Section 20. Liability. No expression made by students in | ||||||
| 4 | the exercise of freedom of speech or freedom of the press shall | ||||||
| 5 | be deemed to be an expression of school policy, and no school | ||||||
| 6 | district or employee or parent, legal guardian, or official of | ||||||
| 7 | the school district shall be held liable in any civil or | ||||||
| 8 | criminal action for any expression made or published by | ||||||
| 9 | students, except in cases of willful or wanton misconduct.
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| 10 | Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon | ||||||
| 11 | becoming law.
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