As a follow-up to our story from July on the daughter of Spring Hill High School Mom Christina Bilyeu, USD 230 has a policy on its “Board Docs” web page addressing student publications and the issue of libel:
Christina Bilyeu says the Spring Hill school district allowed the high school’s yearbook staff to purposely alter her daughter’s gender pronouns after her daughter objected to being referred to as “They/Them” in a featured article.
Is libel applicable to this Spring Hill situation?
The definition of “libel” according to Merriam-Webster:
a defamatory statement or representation especially in the form of written or printed words: such as (a) : a statement published with the knowledge that it is false or with reckless disregard of the truth that injures a public person’s reputation (as in business) or otherwise exposes the person to public contempt or (b) : a false statement published about a private person that the publisher knew or should have known was false and that injures the person’s reputation or causes them other harm
However, the district is mum when asked if their policy applies to the ongoing controversy involving the student who was knowingly misgendered as “They/Them” in a yearbook article despite requesting to the staff that she not be identified as such. We reached out to Superintendent Dr. Link Luttrell, but he did not respond.
Student publications in Kansas are protected by the Kansas Student Publications Act, which applies First Amendment protections to the publications from interference by their school’s administration. The law as it addresses the issue of libel:
Publication or other expression that is libelous, slanderous or obscene or matter that commands, requests, induces, encourages, commends or promotes conduct that is defined by law as a crime or conduct that constitutes a ground or grounds for the suspension or expulsion of students as enumerated in K.S.A.72-8901 (transferred to 72-6114), and amendments thereto, or which creates material or substantial disruption of the normal school activity is not protected by this act.
