Can a principal stop my advertisement for a school play from being published because it is too violent?

There are a couple reasons why your school may be able to censor the Sweeney Todd advertisement. First, we have to figure out whether the student newspaper is a public forum, limited public forum, or nonpublic forum. If it is a nonpublic forum, the school can likely exercise control over the content that is published and can stop the ad from being published. If it is a limited public forum or a public forum, the school probably cannot stop the ad from being published. Click here to view factors to help determine whether the school newspaper is a limited public forum. Our hunch is that the school newspaper is a limited public forum, which means the school likely cannot prevent your ad from being published.

The principal has never cared what we publish in the school newspaper before. Does that matter?

You bet it does! It definitely helps your case, but there are a lot of other factors we have to analyze before we can determine whether your principal can stop your ad from being published in the school newspaper. When you say that the principal has never cared what you publish in your school newspaper, what you’re really saying is that he’s never exercised prior review. This basically means that you don’t have to get the “okay” from your principal before you publish something in the newspaper. This is good for you because this indicates that your principal has minimal control over the content of the newspaper and the fact that your principal never exercised prior review leans in your favor. However, like mentioned (and linked) above, there are other factors besides prior review to consider. We’re not sure what the specific circumstances are at your school, so you would have to investigate your school rules and policies. However, the basic rule of thumb is that the less involved the school authorities are in the newspaper, the more likely it will be a limited public forum or public forum, and the more likely you can publish a wider variety of content. 

So, does the fact that there’s a bloody knife in the ad really matter?

You make a very good point, but the bloody knife does matter for a different reason. Even if your school newspaper is a public forum or limited public forum, the school may be able to censor the ad under something known as the Tinker rule. The Tinker rule comes from the most famous student speech court case, Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, and it says that students have First Amendment rights, but those rights can be limited if speech causes or is likely to cause a material and substantial disruption to students’ learning. A material and substantial disruption is a really, really, big disruption—something out of the ordinary. It cannot be a small buzz in the hallway, it has to be big. A material and substantial disruption would be something like the students walking out of the school during class, physically fighting in school, or being so rude to a teacher that she leaves the classroom for a couple weeks. If the school thinks that disruption may be a consequence of the speech, they can probably prohibit that speech before the disruption actually occurs, but the school has to have a real good reason for thinking the speech will cause a disruption (they can’t just make that argument for the sake of it).

To illustrate, let’s look at Tinker. In Tinker, the court held that students peacefully and silently protesting the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school is a protected form of free speech. This type of speech did not cause, nor was likely to cause, a material and substantial disruption to the education of the students at the school. On the other hand, many courts have held that students wearing clothing showing a confederate flag is not a protected form of free speech because it will likely cause a material and substantial disruption to the learning environment. This is especially true in schools that have a history of racial issues. If a school has had racial incidents in the past, a shirt with a confederate flag is probably likely to cause more incidents and disruptions in the future. Because of the racist message that the confederate flag portrays, although a shirt with a confederate flag is totally legal in the world outside of school, the school is probably within its power to prohibit such a shirt in school to prevent a disruption caused by the message.

Bringing it back to your Sweeney Todd ad. You haven’t said that a material and substantial disruption occurred because of your ad in the newspaper. Unless this ad caused the students to be so preoccupied with the ad that they couldn’t pay attention in class and were not learning, we doubt your ad caused a material and substantial disruption. However, our analysis isn’t quite done yet. The school may try to argue that publishing the advertisement in the school newspaper with a bloody knife is likely to cause a material and substantial disruption (like encouraging students to bring a knife to school and threaten someone. Although unlikely and the ad really just being a form of artistic speech, violence in school is a national issue, which tends to give administrators some leeway). Unfortunately, this is a pretty hard argument for students to win because no one can see the future and courts usually side with schools to be on the safe side. If your school argues that your Sweeney Todd ad is likely to cause a material and substantial disruption if it is published in the school newspaper, they probably can prevent it from being published.

What about the website and billboards around town? 

Unfortunately, we don’t think we have as good of news for the website and billboards. We have to look at the website and billboards the same way we looked at the newspaper—are they a public forum, limited public forum, or nonpublic forum? The website is not like the student newspaper because school authorities are the only people who have access to post things on the website and are in complete control of the content on the website. It’s very likely that only a couple people from the administration have access to the website and we’re pretty certain that no student has access to post on the website, and even if they do, they probably could not post something without the consent of the administration. Because of this, the website is a nonpublic forum, and the school could stop the Sweeney Todd ad from being published on the website.

The billboards around town are also a nonpublic forum. Like the website, the administration has complete control over what is being advertised on a billboard. We highly doubt a student has ever had the power to publish an advertisement on a billboard on behalf of the school without the administration’s consent. Also, the school pays for the billboards. Having financial control over something gives that person pretty much all the power over that thing. Therefore, the billboards are also a nonpublic forum and the principal can censor the Sweeney Todd ad on those as well.