280.22 - STUDENT EXERCISE OF FREE EXPRESSION.
280.22 STUDENT EXERCISE OF FREE EXPRESSION.
1. Except as limited by this section, students of the public
schools have the right to exercise freedom of speech, including the
right of expression in official school publications.
2. Students shall not express, publish, or distribute any of the
following:
a. Materials which are obscene.
b. Materials which are libelous or slanderous under chapter
659.
c. Materials which encourage students to do any of the
following:
(1) Commit unlawful acts.
(2) Violate lawful school regulations.
(3) Cause the material and substantial disruption of the orderly
operation of the school.
3. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for
official school publications except when the material violates this
section.
4. Each board of directors of a public school shall adopt rules
in the form of a written publications code, which shall include
reasonable provisions for the time, place, and manner of conducting
such activities within its jurisdiction. The board shall make the
code available to the students and their parents.
5. Student editors of official school publications shall assign
and edit the news, editorial, and feature content of their
publications subject to the limitations of this section. Journalism
advisers of students producing official school publications shall
supervise the production of the student staff, to maintain
professional standards of English and journalism, and to comply with
this section.
6. Any expression made by students in the exercise of free
speech, including student expression in official school publications,
shall not be deemed to be an expression of school policy, and the
public school district and school employees or officials shall not be
liable in any civil or criminal action for any student expression
made or published by students, unless the school employees or
officials have interfered with or altered the content of the student
speech or expression, and then only to the extent of the interference
or alteration of the speech or expression.
7. "Official school publications" means material produced by
students in the journalism, newspaper, yearbook, or writing classes
and distributed to the student body either free or for a fee.
8. This section does not prohibit a board of directors of a
public school from adopting otherwise valid rules relating to oral
communications by students upon the premises of each school. Section History: Recent Form
89 Acts, ch 155, §1
Referred to in § 279.58