A new bill has been introduced to the Committee of the House of the state of Washington. It is a bill, “concerning freedom of expression rights of students at public schools and institutions of higher education.”

SB 5064 – States that public high school students and students at institutions of higher education have the right to exercise freedom of speech and freedom of the press in school-sponsored media.

This means that every high school student will now have protection to speak freely and write freely for our Yearbooks and this newspaper online or in general. This is important because now we have a law protecting us from defamation lawsuits. The Yearbook will greatly impacted by this bill if it passes. Annie Green, the Yearbook teacher is, “so excited about it!”

“I feel like it gives student a voice without retribution from printing the truth. When students are taught the legal ramifications of their writing and published works, they make the right decisions with regards to what they publish,” said Green.

If something is written that someone does not like, no one can sue you, the school, or me. Vice versa, no one can sue the school for something that a high school student published or wrote. So that way, we are protected by our state and using the First Amendment correctly and to its full extent.

If you want to send a response to our State Legislature, click on the link below. This would really help our school and our state and hopefully these type bills will make their way to other states so other students can be protected.

http://app.leg.wa.gov