NEWS

Burlington students press for free speech

Nicole Higgins DeSmet
Free Press Staff Writer

A bill for students rights and freedom of expression passed its first hurdle last week unopposed in the Senate.

The legislation, Senate Bill 18 was sponsored by Sen. Jeanette White of Putney, is timely for students at the Burlington High School Register, a school sponsored publication. Censorship hit the Register in September when an editor, Alexandre Silberman, 18, wrote an article about a sign held by a Rice Memorial High School fan at a football game against Burlington.

Burlington fans, with less controversial signs, cheer for the team during the high school football game between the Rice Green Knights and the Burlington Seahorses at Burlington high school on Friday night September 9, 2016 in Burlington.

The sign claimed that BHS football players were, among other things, gang members and convicts.

"They got really concerned about that story," Alexandre Silberman, said in a January interview. Silberman is also a freelance writer for the Burlington Free Press.

"They had us pull the image. They edited part of the article. We weren’t allowed to say what the sign said or print the image of the sign, so we had to be really vague in describing it," Silberman said.

Inspired by what happened at the Register and what he heard about how a similar law benefited other student journalism programs, Silberman and co-editor Jake Bucci testified before the Vermont Legislature in January, after the bill had been introduced.

Citing the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of speech, the bill seeks to liberate students from school-sponsored censorship and protect advisers from administrative backlash.

Burlington High School in May 2016.

David Lamberti, the adviser for the Register and a business teacher at the high school, supports the bill.

"Knowing I cannot be held legally responsible or fired for supporting my students is comforting," Lamberti wrote back after first submitting questions from the Burlington Free Press to Principal Tracy Racicot.

"Another reason I support the Bill is because we need to teach kids at a younger age how to ask difficult questions and have conversations about divisive topics," Lamberti wrote, explaining the difficulty of starting such conversations when the students lack skills to process them.

"The administration at BHS has always supported a student's right to voice their opinions. Indeed, in my experience, they have always respected the student voice," Lamberti said.

But Silberman says the school has taken actions that could create self-censorship, curbing students from trying to push for more controversial stories.

Student journalists from the Burlington High School Register stand in the Burlington Free Press news room with one of their editors, Alexandre Silberman, who is third from the left.

"Now we are required to send the entire paper in advance. They can decide to pull any articles they want," Silberman said of the school's administrative policy. Previously, according to Silberman, Lamberti would flag individual articles for Principal Racicot's review.

Lamberti did not respond to an emailed question regarding how this policy equates with supporting students rights to voice their opinions.

The bill, nicknamed New Voices, has just made it to the House Committee on Education. Committee Chairman, Rep. David Sharpe, wasn't familiar with the bill on Monday. His first response to the legislation was mixed.

"I can't see why we wouldn't want to protect student journalists," Sharpe said, "but at the same time administration should have some right to control hate speech on t-shirts and promoting risky behavior."

The bill, as introduced, would not give students the right to break state or federal laws regarding libel, slander, privacy and the orderly operation of a school.

Rep. Kathryn Webb of Shelburne reports that the committee will probably look at the bill in mid-March.

Contact Nicole Higgins DeSmet, ndesmet@freepressmedia.com or 802-660-1845. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleHDeSmet.