NEWSPAPER DISTRIBUTION AN ISSUE AT WOODLAND

MARBLE HILL -- Some students at Woodland High School believe their First Amendment rights are being abridged, but the administration says it's simply a matter of policy.

At issue is an underground newsletter -- appropriately called News From The Underground -- published by a couple of students without the school's consent.

The paper is the brainchild of Thomas Schaffer, 18, a senior at Woodland.

Schaffer said the paper is a harmless vehicle for student opinion and represents no threat to the administration at Woodland.

"We don't use any cussing or slander anybody," he said. "I thought we had freedom of the press and freedom of expression in America. This is what they teach us, but then the school won't let us pass out this newspaper."

Superintendent Ronald Wene said the content of the newspaper isn't at issue. Wene said no one is allowed to distribute materials at school or solicit students without first getting the administration's approval, he said.

"If they go through the proper channels, we'd be glad to consider a school newspaper," he said. "We'd want to have some input into what goes in the paper, though.

"But this is not the way of going about it. Unfortunately, I don't think (a sanctioned school newspaper) is their objective at all."

Mark Engelhardt, the high school principal, said many students have misunderstood the administration's intention when he and Wene banned distribution of The Underground.

"We wouldn't let anybody just come into the school and pass out literature without approval," he said. "It's the same with the students."

Charlotte Byland, a parent in the Woodland School District, said many parents side with Schaffer and his partners.

"I have four children in school, and they were told they cannot read this," she said. "It's not a vulgar paper; It's just students expressing concerns about some of the things going on at the school."

Byland said she and some other parents are trying to form a parents' group to address some of those same concerns.

"When my kids are told what they can read and what they can think and can't think, I really get upset," she said. "Most of the parents I know are supportive.

But Wene said he doubted whether the school's suppression of the paper is a major issue among most parents.

"It's not an issue, in my opinion, for a high percentage of people in the school district," he said. "We're a lot more interested in the positive things happening at Woodland."

Wene referred to the girls volleyball team's competition this week in the Missouri state volleyball tournament.

There have been three issues of the newspaper, which is a single, mimeographed sheet that's been passed out at school.

The first issue criticized the school district for allegedly failing to treat members of the volleyball team the same way basketball players were dealt with when they were caught drinking alcohol.

In a story written by "Oscar U.," the newspaper said the basketball players, who were kicked off the team, should have been punished, but questioned why volleyball players also allegedly caught drinking didn't face the same punishment.

The second edition dealt with the administration's ban on distribution of the newspaper. In the third issue, released Wednesday, the paper further addressed the issue by citing a Supreme Court decision that prohibited censoring of school newspapers.

The case, Tinker vs. Des Moines School District, though, essentially was overturned in the late 1980s by another Supreme Court case that validated school districts' right to censor or prohibit school publications.

It's the latter case, Hazelwood School District vs. Kuhlmeier, that Wene and Engelhardt use to defend their action.

Engelhardt said no students have come to him to ask for a school-sanctioned newspaper.

"My door's always open to students," Engelhardt said. "I've had people come in in the past, and I appreciate students coming to me with their concerns."

"The student's have never asked for a student newspaper," said Wene. "Whether we'd do it or not, I don't know. But at this point, they haven't asked for it."

Schaffer said he'd be happy to take his newspaper to the administration and ask for permission to hand it out to students.

"If I take the paper in and they say no, we'll still pass it out," he said. "We just want our paper out, and they just won't let it."

Schaffer also said there are students who would like to have a school-sanctioned paper.

"We'd love to have a paper written by the students, for the students," he said. "And we'd be willing to have it monitored for content, but we don't want total censorship."