Journalism teachers and advisers can breathe a collective sigh of relief, as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last month signed Senate Bill 1370, which primarily deals with protecting journalism advisers from being dismissed or punished due to the activities of the student press.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo, authored the bill, which follows a law Yee sponsored in 2006 that prohibits administrators from censoring the student press and protects students from being disciplined for engaging in speech or press activities.

Senate Bill 1370, also known as the Journalism Teacher Protection Act, will prohibit an employee, usually a teacher, from being suspended, disciplined, reassigned, transferred, or otherwise retaliated against for acting to protect a student’s speech or freedom of press. For example, a journalism adviser could no longer be fired for refusing to try to discover the identity of a student reporter’s anonymous source.

“Since administrators are unable by law to exercise prior restraint with regard to a student publication, they lean on advisers to do what they legally cannot,” said Jim Ewert, legal counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Association, in a press release. “When advisers refuse, they are punished because administrators know they will face no legal consequences. SB 1370 was necessary to close this gaping loophole in the law.”

Yee himself was also highly enthusiastic about the impact of the new bill.

“I am very pleased to see California continue to ensure true freedom of the press is alive and well on campuses,” Yee said in a press release. “Allowing a school administration to censor in any way is contrary to the democratic process and the ability of a student newspaper to serve as the watchdog and bring sunshine to the actions of school administrators. It is quite disheartening to hear, that after we specifically prohibited prior restraint by administrators, that some are engaging in this type of nefarious activity and even firing quality teachers because of the content of the student newspaper.”

The bill will officially become law on Jan. 1 and has been endorsed by the CNPA, California Teachers association, California Federation of Teachers, California School Employees Association, California State Student Association, Associated Students of the University of California (Davis), California State University Employees Union, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, State Employees Trades Council, Council of University of California Faculty Associations, Service Employees International Union, California Faculty Association, California Nurses Association, American Civil Liberties Union and California Labor Federation, according to the press release.

The official press release from Yee’s office may be found here.

The full text of the bill may be found here.