Neshaminy postpones vote on Redskins policy

The Neshaminy School Board has postponed a vote on a proposed policy that would reverse the student newspaper's current ban of the word "Redskin," which some of the student editors have deemed offensive.

The vote was scheduled for Wednesday's board meeting. But the matter will be discussed further at a board policy meeting on May 27 because of lingering questions from board members and the public. The earliest possible vote on the policy would be in June.

Some school board members, such as Steve Pirritano, have said the current ban infringes on the rights of students who are proud of the term, which is the namesake of the district's sports teams, and might want to use it in an article for the student newspaper, The Playwickian.

However, Adam Goldstein, attorney advocate for the Student Press Law Center, said such a policy would break state and federal laws that protect editors of a student newspaper.

Goldstein said a school board has some legal precedent to stop a student newspaper from expressing certain ideas or using certain words that some people find offensive. But, he said, there is no legal precedent for a school district to force a student newspaper to use a word or express an idea. Students are protected from such intervention by a U.S. Supreme Court decision in the 1940s that said schools cannot force student to pledge allegiance to the flag, Goldstein said.

"If the board sticks to its guns, the most difficult question we're going to have is what tie to wear to court," Goldstein said.   

The Playwickian's editors have retained the pro-bono counsel of the Philadelphia law firm Levine, Sullivan, Koch & Shulz.