‘First Amendment Tour’ debuts in Pittsburg

Jeff Browne/KSPA Executive Director
August 29, 2010
Filed under News

KSPA’s first stop in the 2010 “First Amendment Tour” set a high standard both in terms of audience participation and host-school hospitality.

University of Kansas journalism professors Malcolm Gibson, Pam Fine and I greeted more than 100 students, three administrators, one school board member and several community members for our presentation on the First Amendment, the Kansas Student Publications Act and ethical journalistic practices.

PHS adviser Emily Smith and her students chalked the sidewalk leading up to the school’s entrance, writing out the First Amendment in its entirety, drawing a full-color Jayhawk, and greeting us by name.

After a Chicken Mary’s lunch with Pittsburg Morning Sun Editor and Publisher Steven Wade (whose paper inserts the PHS student publication into his paper), Smith led us to the school auditorium, where we had two hours to fill.

According to this article in the Morning Sun, we must have succeeded at least a little bit.