September 13, 2005

Newark, NJ - The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey announced that it reached an amicable agreement yesterday with the Caldwell-West Caldwell school district on behalf of current and former members of James Caldwell High School's student newspaper (The Caldron) who were prohibited from publishing an article discussing the subject of sex. The school's principal also prohibited publication of any future article that sought to comment on his decision to engage in censorship.

"The censorship of this wonderful article was a failure by school administrators to recognize responsible journalism and the First Amendment rights of high school students," stated Andrew Mangino, former editor-in-chief and student Board of Director Chairman for The Caldron. "Thankfully, the student community will finally have the opportunity to read this piece as well as others that address the real issues students face every day."

During last school year, Samantha Paul, a Caldron writer, researched and wrote an article entitled "Let's Talk About Sex." The article discussed national trends and studies regarding students' sexual habits and then compared them to West Caldwell, based on the paper's own investigation and questioning of students. No students' names were used in the article. The article was to run in the April 2005 edition of the paper. However, the school's principal censored publication of the article and, later, prohibited any future mention in The Caldron of his decision. Those prohibitions continued into the current school year.

The ACLU-NJ agreed to represent current Cauldron co-editor-in-chief Jillian Chase and former student staff members Samantha Paul and Andrew Mangino. In hopes of avoiding the need to file a lawsuit, the ACLU-NJ sent a letter to school officials seeking resolution. The letter explained that the school official's actions violated the students' right to free speech and expression as guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and by Article I, Paragraphs 1 and 6 of the New Jersey Constitution. After meeting yesterday, all parties involved agreed to an amicable settlement.

Pursuant to the agreement, the students will be permitted to publish the "Let's Talk About Sex" article with minor changes to the language (but not the content) of the article. They will also be permitted to write follow-up stories addressing the conflict over the principal's initial decision to censor the article. The Board of Education has further acknowledged that, unless more specific policies are promulgated, school officials can only prohibit publication of articles that would cause a substantial and material disruption to the school.

"Our schools should encourage responsible discussions by students of the issues affecting them," explained ACLU-NJ cooperating attorney Bennet Zurofsky of Reitman Parsonnet in Newark, New Jersey, who, along with Hilary Meyer (also of Reitman Parsonnet), represented the students in this matter. He added, "Our courts have long since recognized that students do not shed their rights at the schoolhouse gates and that student speech, whether in general or specifically in school newspapers, should not be restricted absent an overriding and clearly-defined justification to do so."

Left to right: Andrew Mangino, Paul Martucci, Matthew Skibinski, Julian Chase, Brian Taylor, Samantha Paul.