By Gretchen Garrity
"Students who live under a regime of censorship are being taught that freedom of speech and government accountability are disposable values that must give way to 'making the school look good.' The lessons these students learn about the First Amendment--lessons they will carry with them into their adult lives--are that people with power get to control what is said about them, and that viewpoints should be suppressed by the government if they challenge prevailing beliefs. This is not only bad preparation for journalism, it is bad preparation for citizenship."
In the first chapter of the reference tool, "Law of the Student Press," the editors write about censorship. Their focus is high schools and colleges, but their words apply to the larger world, where censorship is alive and well on social media platforms.
While we tend to think censorship and suppression of free speech is something Google, Mark Zuckerberg and the old Twitter indulges in, the culture of censorship has trickled down to local platforms and activists who routinely suppress and delete articles and writers they find objectionable.
Often, there is back channel chatter that attempts to demean and discredit individuals who say or publish uncomfortable truths. Even elected officials indulge in this behavior. Instead of engaging the public in a spirited debate, or pointing out errors, these individuals subvert free speech in a stealthy background campaign to censor points of view with which they disagree or find inconvenient, and to discourage others from engaging in public discourse.
It points to the larger issue in the Republican Party right now. What is a conservative? What does it mean to be a Republican? What are the values of the individuals who make up the Party? How do those values, or lack of them, affect what happens on the local, state, and national level?
In a 1988 decision that was devastating to the free speech rights of students, the United States Supreme Court ruled that students at a St. Louis, MO high school did not have the right to publish articles the school administration deemed unacceptable. You can read about the ruling HERE.
The editors of the Law of the Student Press had this to say in reference to the ruling:
"A generation's worth of legalized Hazelwood censorship has damaged the learning environment in schools, discouraged young people from meaningfully engaging in civic life, and obstructed the public's access to truthful information. As the director of the University of Arizona's journalism program told a law-school symposium reflecting on the legacy of Hazelwood, 'We are raising a nation of sheep. I don't think it's extreme to say that we risk democracy."
Meanwhile, writers are being called extremist around the state of Missouri and in Christian County. David Rice interviewed Gail Griswold and myself the other day. Judge for yourself who the extremists are:
