Many kudos to State Sen. Leland Yee (D -San Francisco/ San Mateo) for unveiling Senate Bill 1370, which aims to "prohibit an employee from being dismissed, suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against for acting to protect a pupil's conduct," as protected by California state law and the U.S. Constitution.

The bill comes in a response to schools firing experienced journalism advisers and replacing them with inexperienced advisers.

In public schools, the First Amendment protects student journalists, but advisors do not have this privilege.

A school cannot take disciplinary action against a student for anything published, but the school can intimidate and fire the teacher.

"Several years ago, we were told administrators were using prior restraint on student newspapers," Yee said in a press conference at the Associated Collegiate Press national college newspaper convention on Friday, Feb 29, at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway in San Francisco.

"While we protected the students, the administration was going after teachers. I find it disconcerting that the administration is trying to silence students. What [the bill] will do is prevent any administrators from retaliatory acts against advisers."

Advisers need to have the same protection as the students, and this bill will act as their shield law.

It is ridiculous for these people to be fired for doing their jobs.

It's reassuring to see our elected representatives standing up and working toward protecting civil liberties. This isn't a pet project bill—this is a bill that protects people's livelihoods

Student newspapers are hard work, and these publications are run and edited by the students themselves.

Behind every group of student editors is an adviser.

The adviser is a teacher or instructor that the student editors can turn to for guidance and advice.

The adviser does not edit the newspaper in any way.

It’s about time we protected our much-needed advisers.