The ACLU's Best and Worst in San Diego, 2009
January 7, 2010
Voice of San Diego
Best:...The Notorious F.U.H.S.: Fallbrook High School has a long, rocky relationship with the First Amendment and the ACLU.
1) In 1985, its principal suspended two students for circulating an underground newspaper...
2) Alas, those lessons didn't stick. In 2006, Fallbrook told a 15-year old, honor roll student to remove a small American flag in her back pocket, which, ironically, she wore to protest censorship of student expression about immigration issues...
3) In 2007-08, a new Fallbrook principal did not like two pieces written by student journalists for the school paper -- an editorial critical of abstinence-only education and an article about the former superintendent's departure. So, he censored those items. Then, he retaliated against the newspaper advisor for blowing the whistle and eliminated the newspaper class. After the Student Press Law Center wrote a letter, the ACLU and co-counsel Bostwick & Jassy sued. Under threat of a court order, the school finally authorized the paper to publish the editorial and article and, in settlement of the suit, agreed to send a nice letter to the students, oversee publication of at least four issues a year of the paper, compensate the advisor, pay attorney's fees, and follow regulations and procedures respecting student free press rights.
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