El Camino College has been violating its students’ First Amendment rights for more than a year since revising its social media policy in September 2024.
The policy also violates California Constitution Article I, Section 2, and Education Code 48907, which protects students’ rights to free expression.
The policy requires student organizations to register their social media accounts with the college and receive student adviser approval on all posts before they are uploaded.
According to the student organization handbook, the social media policy states that “before any content is posted, the adviser must review and provide written consent” and that “advisers and student administrators will share responsibility for overseeing and managing the content posted on these accounts.”
It’s reasonable for faculty advisers to have account login information in case a student leaves the college. But content control? That is not, and should never be, part of the adviser’s role.
This isn’t just a hassle—it’s a clear violation of free speech.
Students should be able to express themselves online without requesting permission. We are not children.
A timeline sheet that journalism professor Kate McLaughlin provided to The Union indicated that concerns over the policy were raised several times in the past year.
McLaughlin met with Jeff Stephenson, vice president of student services and Carlos Lopez, vice president of academic affairs, who said Parker & Covert LLP had reviewed the policy.
The Union attempted to contact Parker & Covert but did not receive a response before the print deadline.
McLaughlin showed them two legal opinions on the policy, and vice presidents Stephenson and Lopez stated they would get back to her after reviewing it with their lawyers again. Since then, they have not followed up with her.
McLauglin refused to sign off on what she describes as an illegal policy, therefore the Journalism Club was unable to form.
The Union contacted legal expert Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel for the Student Press Law Center, who said that faculty advisers at public colleges are government officials, and the First Amendment exists to prevent government interference with free speech.
“If the policy says that part of your management responsibility is screening and approving things before they’re actually posted, clearly illegal,” Hiestand said.
Let’s go over it: The First Amendment protects the right to freedom of speech, so requiring faculty advisers who are government employees to approve content before posting on their student organization’s social media shows El Camino is controlling what students can and can’t say.
This is prior restraint.
The Union also contacted Dominic Coletti, a program officer for the Student Press Freedom Initiative at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), who explained that the college’s requirement for faculty advisers to control student organizations’ social media content is prior restraint.
“It’s efforts by a government official or a governmental body to stop speech before it happens,” Coletti said. “If students and student groups are not allowed to post speech without showing it to faculty members, and faculty members are able to say, ‘You cannot post this.’ The moment they say, ‘You cannot post this,’ and bar that from going out, that’s a prior restraint.”
Student organizations should not be required to seek permission from government employees before posting on student-run social media platforms.
If the administration truly wanted to protect the college, why would it expose itself to legal liability?
