Principals’ course offered for fifth time

A graduate-level, college course in the First Amendment for high school principals and administrators is once again being offered in summer 2008 thanks to a collaboration between Ball State’s Teachers College and the J-Ideas program of the Department of Journalism.

The one-of-a-kind course, “The Administrator and the First Amendment,” continues with a class of Indiana principals and administrators.  The class was previously offered in 2005 and 2006, summer 2007, and fall 2007, respectively.

Joseph McKinney, the chairman of the Department of Educational Leadership at Teachers College, is teaching the course, which is being offered online through Ball State’s Extended Education Program. Co-instructor is Warren Watson, director of the J-Ideas program in BSU’s Department of Journalism.

The goal of the course is to help administrators better understand and use the First Amendment in their respective schools. That, in turn, we hope will help high school students better prepare themselves as citizens.

National surveys taken in 2004, 2006 and 2007  -- involving more than 130,000 high school students, plus teachers, parents and administrators – have shown that America’s high schools are leaving the First Amendment behind. Schools, according to the survey conducted by researchers at the University of Connecticut and commissioned by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, are doing a poor job in teaching the First Amendment, which is the core of our basic freedoms.

J-Ideas and other scholastic journalism advocacy groups have long worked to train teachers and students in the working of the First Amendment and media law. The 692 course is the first concerted effort to better prepare administrators.

A Knight study from 2004 showed that principals themselves need to brush up a bit on their knowledge of the Bill of Rights. Fifty percent of the 308 principals polled erroneously believe that the government has the right to restrict indecent material on the Internet. Three in 10 do not know that Americans have the legal right to deface the American flag as a means of political protest.

In addition, 40 percent polled in the Knight survey said they felt that the American educational system was not doing a good job in teaching students about basic freedoms. And 70 percent said that Americans in general do not appreciate the First Amendment the way they ought to.

McKinney said that a major thrust of the course is to address Supreme Court decisions that define the rights of student publications. “We want to explore those sensitive issues” of censorship, he said.

Among those is the 1988 Supreme Court ruling Hazelwood vs. Kuhlmeier, which allows student press censorship in limited circumstances, but is often misunderstood by administrators who feels it gives them blanket control over the content of student media.

The Knight study of principal attitudes showed that many administrators feel that students should not be trusted to publish freely in their schools. Seventy-five percent polled said that students should not be allowed to report controversial issues without the prior approval of school authorities.

The Ball State course hopes to address that issue by focusing on the positive role that student media can play in a high school.

The initiative to bring this course to administrators is part of a national reform effort that J-Ideas is undertaking to fortify the Bill of Rights in our schools.