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| | HB5902 Enrolled | | LRB099 20463 MLM 44969 b |
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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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