Is the “Killian Nine” case unprecedented?
There is a long history of school administrators suppressing student publications in South Florida and elsewhere – both official and underground papers. But in the past, they’ve been handled with suspensions. In 1994, for instance, three students at Hialeah High were suspended after publishing a threepage edition filled with profanity, threats to faculty and a graphic depiction of a shooting death. Ironically the Killian Nine arrests occurred in one of the few counties that had restored some of the rights of student journalists that the 1988 U.S. Supreme Court Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier decision took away. MiamiDade, for instance, is one of the few districts that does not allow prior review of student newspapers. Only items denoted slanderous, provocative with a sexual connotation, or disruptive of school activities can be censored by school officials. The “Killian Nine” students are the only students we are aware of who have been subjected to arrest for publishing written
