2002: Draught v. Wooster

In 2002, the student newspaper of Wooster High School, The Blade, was censored because an article was deemed defamatory. The article was written about the inconsistent enforcement of the school’s alcohol policy, and the preferential treatment of student-athletes caught drinking.

The students sued the school for restricting their First Amendment rights, not allowing them the freedom of press and speech to quote a student who went on record about drinking at the party and receiving no consequence from the school.

Judge James Gwin had to decide if The Blade was a public or private forum before he could make a judgment. According to the ruling in Hazelwood v. Kuhlmeier, school administrators might significantly restrict students’ First Amendment rights by censoring non-public forum student publications. However, administrators at the school had to offer considerably stronger justifications for suppressing student newspapers that were published in public or in limited public forums.

In the end, the judge decided that The Blade was a limited student forum and ruled in favor of Wooster. Their censorship was justified because the administrators had a logical reason for considering that the article was defamatory. However, this case ensured that school administrators could not use the Hazelwood case to censor whatever they wanted.

What this means for free speech: In this case, the journalists did not follow up with the administration to verify that the student who admitted to drinking had reported the incident and did not receive a consequence. The case emphasizes the importance of fact checking, and not relying on a single interview to tell a whole story.