The War On Free Speech Summary
The Shackled Pen
While I may only be 18 years old, federal laws have silenced me since 1988.
Stripped of my right of freedom of speech with the implementation of Hazelwood laws-- enacted after the Supreme Court case ruling in favor of the Hazelwood School District in the court case Tinker vs Hazelwood-- myself and other high school journalists all over the United States have lost our "unalienable right" to speak our minds in print.
As student journalists, our job dictates that we exhume the truths that others attempt to bury under fatuous pop-culture pieces. If the stories printed in the paper do not provoke emotion and push the envelope, the paper has failed to accomplish its purposes; however, the Hazelwood laws infringe on our first amendment …show more content…
If society continues to shelter Generation Y from uncomfortable topics until they reach adulthood, the generation as a whole will lack the ability to efficiently deal with sensitive material. How can my peers take part in underage alcohol consumption, substance abuse, and premarital sex but cannot read a 500 word feature story on the uprise of political activism by use of social media?
In his "The War on Free Speech" segment from his Fox News hour, Censored in America, John Stossel stated: “(get real quote) Young kids can have sex, but they cannot handle hearing something that makes them uncomfortable.”
The federal government, as an institution that serves to protect not only its citizens but the rights of its citizens, cannot limit free speech. Especially free speech in the media. Putting a restriction on what people can and cannot say directly puts a restriction on their liberty. By telling high school students to censor themselves in order to ensure that they do not offend anyone, high school administrations inadvertently communicate to students that every disagreement they encounter is a personal assault. By prohibiting me from publishing a story out of fear that it may hurt someone’s feelings or make a student uncomfortable, my high school principal explicated to me that I should revere the comfort of others over the precedence of the
While I may only be 18 years old, federal laws have silenced me since 1988.
Stripped of my right of freedom of speech with the implementation of Hazelwood laws-- enacted after the Supreme Court case ruling in favor of the Hazelwood School District in the court case Tinker vs Hazelwood-- myself and other high school journalists all over the United States have lost our "unalienable right" to speak our minds in print.
As student journalists, our job dictates that we exhume the truths that others attempt to bury under fatuous pop-culture pieces. If the stories printed in the paper do not provoke emotion and push the envelope, the paper has failed to accomplish its purposes; however, the Hazelwood laws infringe on our first amendment …show more content…
If society continues to shelter Generation Y from uncomfortable topics until they reach adulthood, the generation as a whole will lack the ability to efficiently deal with sensitive material. How can my peers take part in underage alcohol consumption, substance abuse, and premarital sex but cannot read a 500 word feature story on the uprise of political activism by use of social media?
In his "The War on Free Speech" segment from his Fox News hour, Censored in America, John Stossel stated: “(get real quote) Young kids can have sex, but they cannot handle hearing something that makes them uncomfortable.”
The federal government, as an institution that serves to protect not only its citizens but the rights of its citizens, cannot limit free speech. Especially free speech in the media. Putting a restriction on what people can and cannot say directly puts a restriction on their liberty. By telling high school students to censor themselves in order to ensure that they do not offend anyone, high school administrations inadvertently communicate to students that every disagreement they encounter is a personal assault. By prohibiting me from publishing a story out of fear that it may hurt someone’s feelings or make a student uncomfortable, my high school principal explicated to me that I should revere the comfort of others over the precedence of the