Hazelwood East High School

In May 1983, two pages were deleted from the Spectrum, a high school newspaper written by the students of Hazelwood School East High. The principal, Ronald Reynolds, had carefully looked over the text and decided that two articles should not be released for the public to read because of their sensitive topics. He ordered the deletion of the pages that contained the articles, which resulted in more articles being deleted from the paper. Principal Reynolds believed that the articles’ references to sexual actions and activities were too inappropriate for the target audience. He insisted that teen pregnancy and the impacts of divorce were improper subjects for a high school newspaper.

The students who were in charge of publishing the Spectrum felt as though their First Amendment Rights were in the process of being violated. They believed that their principal and other school officials were hindering their freedom of speech by censoring their newspaper. Shocked and disgusted, the students filed a lawsuit against the school and began the first Supreme Court case that focused primarily on the press rights of high school students.

The Supreme Court had ruled in favor of Principle Ronald Reynolds. They decided that “Principal Reynolds had the right to censor articles in the student newspaper that were deemed contrary to the school’s educational mission.” The Court ruled that schools have every right to censor any forms of expression that are poorly written, prejudiced, profane, unsuited for immature audiences, and/or are the product of false research, or lack thereof.