Following "Tinker vs. Des Moines Community School District," the United States Supreme Court decision that assured First Amendment rights to secondary school students and teachers, California began experimenting with statutory guarantees of free expression for students at the high school and community college levels. Decisions issued by several federal circuit courts of appeal have freed students from regulations allowing arbitrary prior censorship although none of these cases specifically applied to official school newspapers. In 1971, the California Legislature set forth freedom of expression guarantees for secondary students but made no reference to student newspapers produced in journalism classes; some school districts, therefore, concluded that such papers were not covered in the guarantees. The Los Angeles school board produced its own guidelines that prohibited the use of profanity and the endorsement of political candidates and allowed for prior censorship by principals. However, in 1976, the California Supreme Court banned any form of prior censorship, after which the California statute was amended to include student newspapers and to allow prior restraint only in cases of libel, slander, obscenity, and material threatening a substantial disruption of school activities. In spite of this, some school officials continue to ignore the law and to adopt restrictive policies for student newspapers. (Portions of the California law and the Los Angeles guidelines are appended.) (TJ)