Student Editor Wins Fight to Publish AIDS Editorial

A judge Friday ordered Westminster High School to publish an editorial about AIDS written by the school newspaper’s editor.

Michael Shindler, 17, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, had filed a lawsuit three weeks ago, accusing the principal and Huntington Beach Union High School District officials of violating his First Amendment rights by refusing to publish the article.

“They attacked my spelling and grammatical errors when they knew my editorial was in rough draft form and wasn’t even edited,” Shindler, a senior, said after the court hearing in Santa Ana. “But the district didn’t meet the burden to prove the editorial was libelous. I thought it was really lighthearted compared to what the commercial papers (were saying).”

Shindler’s editorial decries public misconceptions about acquired immune deficiency syndrome and accuses the media of sensationalizing AIDS. It also assails the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) for allegedly spreading misinformation about the disease, and it chastises Dannemeyer for hiring anti-gay psychologist-researcher Paul Cameron, who Shindler states was dismissed from a position with the American Psychological Assn.

The district and Principal Robert Boehme refused to publish the article on the ground that statements it contained were potentially libelous. They did not dispute the factual accuracy of the editorial but contended that Shindler got the information from other newspapers and that he refused to call the American Psychological Assn., Dannemeyer or Cameron.

The ruling by Orange County Superior Court Judge Judith M. Ryan means that Shindler’s five-page article, which he says was written as an opinion piece and not as a newspaper staff editorial, will run in the Scroll’s next edition Dec. 16.

Supt. Marie Otto, who was named in Shindler’s suit, said the board will decide today or at its regular meeting Tuesday whether to appeal Ryan’s ruling.

Libel Called the Issue

“Freedom of the press was never an issue. Libel was, and still is,” Boehme said. “The whole issue was that he would not research his statements himself to see if they are true.”

Otto added: “He attacks the media, he attacks Jerry Falwell, he attacks Dannemeyer, he attacks the psychologist, he attacks the world.

“I have no objection to Michael and other students’ expressing their opinions in the (school) newspaper,” said Otto, who added that she attended college on a journalism scholarship. “But I don’t think it comes up to our journalism standards of a school newspaper and . . . I object to the wording of things like ‘the media has bit this (AIDS subject) in the butt.’ ”

On Oct. 29, Shindler submitted the editorial to his journalism adviser, who disapproved of it and referred the matter to Boehme. The principal told Shindler that the editorial was libelous and that it would not be published. Shindler appealed Boehme’s decision to Otto, who upheld the principal but suggested that the objections might be overcome if the editorial were “refined.”

Accuses Minister, Lawmaker

One paragraph that school officials said they found particularly objectionable and potentially libelous accuses the public of willingness to accept as “gospel” information presented by the media. It also accuses Falwell and Dannemeyer of “spreading homophobia and propaganda about AIDS faster than the disease itself is spreading.”

This is not the first time that Shindler, who has indicated he would like to serve on the Westminster City Council, has run into opposition from school officials over his editorials. An editorial this fall accused the media of sometimes slanting the news “to further its own editorial policies” and illustrated the point with contradictory headlines in two newspapers. Boehme refused to publish that editorial because he said it was rambling, failed to make a cohesive point and attacked the media without adequate argument. Shindler did not fight that decision.

Disclaimer Planned

Boehme said that the school intends to run a disclaimer in the Dec. 16 issue of the Scroll, stating that the editorial is published by court order and that the statements are not the opinions of the school. Shindler said he thinks the disclaimer is unnecessary because the newspaper editorial page already features such a disclaimer. “But I’ll humor him on that one,” Shindler said.

Meanwhile, Susan Borges, Shindler’s attorney, said the ACLU probably will pursue its claim that the state education code regarding a school’s right to exercise prior restraint of student newspaper articles is unconstitutional.