The online loophole.

• Position: National - High school students relying more and more in the net for info - Brief Article

For more than a decade, the rights of students working for school newspapers could be summed up in a word: Hazelwood.

That's shorthand for Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave school administrators the final say on what goes into their students' newspapers. Supporters of the rule note that should the student newspaper print something that damages a person's reputation, for instance, it is the school that would be held accountable in a lawsuit.

But a new word has entered the fray since Hazelwood: Internet. Across the country, thousands of students in recent years have rejected the school funds that were once needed to pay for publishing. Instead, the students post their articles on the Web (right).

Last year at Hinsdale (III.) Central High School, school officials objected to student newspaper stories on school violence, including pictures showing students with weapons. The principal destroyed 2,200 copies of the paper. The students then posted their package of articles online, at www.geocities.com/feature7777.

"Nothing is gained in this country by propagating censorship in any form, at any level of the system," says Hinsdale senior Annie Gilsdorf, the lead writer on the stories and now editor of the paper.

The Student Press Law Center in Arlington, Va., saw a dramatic rise last...