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Paper Radio - Censorship at Community High

Paper Radio - Censorship at Community High image
Parent Issue
Day
20
Month
December
Year
1974
OCR Text

CENSORSHIP AT COMMUNITY HIGH

The staff of the Community High School paper, Yenta, have postponed publication of an article on birth control until January. Ann Arbor school officials had threatened them with suspension if they broke a state law which forbids distribution of birth control information inside schools.

The decision came Dec. 5, the day after the Community High students went to a Board of Education meeting and explained their situation to sympathetic but noncommittal Board members.

The students may suffer either censorship or expulsion for an article describing various birth control methods, and informing readers what questions doctors should ask when prescribing to them.

Board members suggested Yenta distribute on nonschool property, put the papers on a free press table rather than hand them out, or postpone publication until after the district can obtain a legal opinion.

The next afternoon, Yenta voted to "delay distribution and work with the Board to change the law." A legal opinion is expected in January, though how that will change the state law is unclear.

"We do not recognize any school board's right to prevent distribution of our newspaper or any other publication," the Yenta staff said in a news release. "Freedom of the press is a basic right protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. We have the right to print and distribute our paper with the birth control article in it. We will publish the article sometime after the Board meeting in January. This is a delay, not a cancellation."