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A lawsuit has been filed by the nonprofit organization Parents Defending Education against the Sequoia Union High School District for the failure to disclose the censorship of Eli Steele’s documentary “Killing America.” This action was taken in response to a cease and desist letter student journalists at Menlo-Atherton High School sent to Steele in April for using copyrighted footage in his film.
The suit was filed on June 13 in San Mateo County Superior Court by PDE, which aims to reclaim “schools from activists promoting harmful agendas.” The organization is asking for the district to produce the records that were formally requested but were denied.
Steele’s documentary investigates the rise of antisemitism in Bay Area schools, focusing on M-A’s controversy over an ethnic studies lesson on Israel and Palestine. The film trailer was published on YouTube and Vimeo and included photos and video taken by student journalists at the M-A Chronicle. Steele did not ask for permission to use those images, according to Cleo Rehkopf, former editor-in-chief of the student newspaper.
Steele argues that his film is protected by the Fair Use doctrine, which allows the use of copyrighted material without permission from the copyright holder under certain circumstances.
“I was surprised by [the cease and desist letter]. I thought that anyone who understood basic journalism and documentaries would understand the copyright law better,” said Steele.
The M-A Chronicle’s editorial board suggests the news organization wasn’t interested in censoring the documentary, but rather wants to set itself apart from the film.
“Being associated with the documentary seemed like it was more intended to cause panic than to thoughtfully comment on the issue,” said Rehkopf. “We felt that would kind of undermine the community’s trust in our reporting.”
Rehkopf acknowledges that Steele “has every right to release the documentary without [our footage].”
The lawsuit filed by PDE claims that the school district is “withholding requested records” related to the censorship “without lawful justification.” Steele and PDE speculate that the students were influenced by school staff and administrators to take legal action.
“We were never motivated to contact anyone at the district or administrators. Our adviser does give us some advice sometimes, but we often go against that advice,” said Rehkopf. “This was definitely a decision that I was promoting and that the other editors decided to back me up on, but that was not influenced by the [administration] or the district or our adviser or anyone else.”
On April 4, PDE submitted a formal request to the district for records containing the phrases “Eli Steele,” “Man of Steele,” “Killing America,” “documentary,” “trailer” and “YouTube.” The purpose of the request was to inform the public of the M-A Chronicle’s copyright removal request, according to the suit.
“California was the first in the country to pass a law that specifically protects student journalists from censorship and editorial interference by administrators,” said Mike Hiestand, senior legal counsel at the Student Press Law Center. “In California, the students run the show.”
The district partially denied PDE’s request claiming that any materials used by the student journalists for publication and records related to advice provided to students in their editorial decision are “exempt from disclosure” as it’s not “reflective of the ‘public’s business’,” states the lawsuit.
Steele is appreciative of PDE’s support in this legal battle but has expressed “regret that it has to come to this situation“ and that “we have to understand that the school and school board are public entities.”
He said the marketing of his film was impacted while dealing with the legalities of the censorship. After the trailer was removed from all platforms, multiple screenings of the film were affected.
As a filmmaker, Steele explained that he uses copyrighted material for all of his work under Fair Use. He told The Almanac that he had no intention of asking for permission as it would take too long to ask every copyright holder for permission to use their content in his films.
“[The M-A Chronicle] could have communicated to me before sending the cease and desist letter,” said Steele, who felt that the letter set a negative tone for the legal battle that followed.
Members of the editorial board said it was a “total shock” when they saw their footage in the documentary trailer and that things may have been different if Steele asked for permission prior to including their material in his film.
Would someone please state what the issue is in plain English.