1. Except as limited by this section, students of the public schools have the right to
exercise freedom of speech, including the right of expression in official school publications.
2. Students shall not express, publish, or distribute any of the following:
a. Materials which are obscene.
b. Materials which are libelous or slanderous under chapter 659.
c. Materials which encourage students to do any of the following:
(2)Violate lawful school regulations.
(3)Cause the material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.
3. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official school publications
except when the material violates this section.
4. Each board of directors of a public school shall adopt rules in the form of a writ
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1. Except as limited by this section, students of the public schools have the right to
exercise freedom of speech, including the right of expression in official school publications.
2. Students shall not express, publish, or distribute any of the following:
a. Materials which are obscene.
b. Materials which are libelous or slanderous under chapter 659.
c. Materials which encourage students to do any of the following:
(1) Commit unlawful acts.
(2) Violate lawful school regulations.
(3) Cause the material and substantial disruption of the orderly operation of the school.
3. There shall be no prior restraint of material prepared for official school publications
except when the material violates this section.
4. Each board of directors of a public school shall adopt rules in the form of a written
publications code, which shall include reasonable provisions for the time, place, and manner
of conducting such activities within its jurisdiction. The code shall incorporate all of the
provisions of this section. The board shall make the code available to the students and their
parents.
5. Student editors of official school publications shall assign and edit the news, editorial,
and feature content of their publications subject to the limitations of this section. Journalism
advisers of students producing official school publications shall supervise the production of
the student staff in order to maintain professional standards of English and journalism and
to comply with this section.
6. Any expression made by students in the exercise of free speech, including student
expression in official school publications, shall not be deemed to be an expression of school
policy,andthepublicschooldistrictandschoolemployeesorofficialsshallnotbeliableinany
civil or criminal action for any student expression made or published by students, unless the
school employees or officials have interfered with or altered the content of the student speech
or expression, and then only to the extent of the interference or alteration of the speech or
expression.
7. A public school employee or official, acting within the scope of the person’s
professional ethics, if any, shall not be dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned,
transferred, subject to termination or nonrenewal of a teaching contract issued under
section 279.13 or an extracurricular contract issued under section 279.19A, or otherwise
retaliated against for acting to protect a student for engaging in conduct authorized under
this section, or refusing to infringe upon student conduct that is protected by this section,
the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, or Article I, section 7, of the
Constitution of the State of Iowa.
8. “Official school publications” means material produced by students in the journalism,
newspaper, yearbook, or writing classes and distributed to the student body either free or for
a fee.
9. This section does not prohibit a board of directors of a public school from adopting
otherwise valid rules relating to oral communications by students upon the premises of each
school.