Press Law and Policy
While I don’t have a law degree — yet — I’ve been trying to incorporate elements of press law into my reporting and journalism work. I hope to delve more into legal reporting, and I am interested in a career as a journalism attorney. Below are some examples of how I’ve been exploring press law.
FOIA REQUESTS
To date, I’ve filed more than 10 Freedom of Information Act requests to multiple public bodies, including Naperville District 203, the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, Illinois Department of Human Rights and the U.S. Department of Education. I continue to practice my FOIA skills for journalism and academic purposes.
For summer 2023, I also won grant funding from Northwestern University to pursue independent research into FOIA administration since 2008, with emphasis on the effects of the 2016 FOIA Improvement Act.
I filed the displayed FOIA request as part of my coverage of our school district and teacher union’s contract negotiations. The records I obtained cleared up confusing claims of a potentially illegal strike the two sides were disputing.
SCHOOL BOARD POLICY
I had the opportunity in spring 2021 to collaborate with Naperville District 203’s interim assistant superintendent of secondary education and other student journalists to revise the school board’s student publications policy. We introduced language that put a heavier burden on administrators to prove the need for censorship and made the policy more closely align with the Illinois Speech Rights of Student Journalists Act. Click below to see the revised policy.
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SPLC WORK
Starting November 2022, I worked with the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) as a 2023 Student Press Freedom Day (SPFD) Co-chair. With the three other Co-chairs, I helped the SPLC plan programming surrounding student press freedom like online trainings, community forums and written guides about overcoming censorship. As a Co-chair, I also worked on a personal project that connects student journalists in Illinois, educates them about student press laws in the state and empowers them to participate in the legislative process to improve those laws.
Even after the co-chairship officially concluded, I’ve been helping the SPLC in Illinois. In late March — during my spring break — I presented on Illinois’ Speech Rights of Student Journalists law at the Scholastic Press Association of Chicago’s spring conference.
In the video I’ve linked, I’m the Co-chair responsible for introducing “Student Press Freedom 101,” a workshop with SPLC senior counsel Mike Hiestand surveying the American student press legal landscape. At the end, I provided some advice for the 30+ students and faculty advisers watching regarding how to create editorial policies that protect their press freedom.