Pell Grant Controversy

Response to Greg Lukianoff on campus censorship

Whitney Jefferies

Watch My Slide Show on Censorship

Transcript of what I'm Saying...

Hi my name is Whitney Jefferies and I am responding to “Greg Lukianoff on campus censorship,” a video that discuss topics presented in Adam Bellow’s, “New Threats to Freedom.”

The Supreme Court ruled that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,” in the Tinker vs. De Moines decision in 1969. However, this court’s decision has been contradicted in many schools for the reason that educational institutions maintain the power to censor what students read, write and yes even speak. The question is; how have schools been able to get away with the censorship of students for so long? I believe it is due to the lack of response from the public. Everyone expects someone else to handle troubling situations. A very few number of people choose to speak up for what they believe in or speak out against what they don’t. After being introduced to Adam Bellow’s, “New Threats to Freedom,” I’ve decided that as a college undergrad I’m going to express myself.

To understand censorship, it is important to know the history. In 1988, just 19 years from the Tinker case, the Supreme Court ruled that school officials have the right to control school-sponsored student publications that are not public forums of student expression.  As you can see, the laws evolve and people such as you, have the power to set the tone of change. This case in particular dealt with a high school paper called “The Spectrum,” which was a product of a journalism class in Hazelwood high. In the end, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Hazelwood School District. As a result, school officials may impose some limits on school-sponsored publications.

How do these two court decisions affect our lives? Well, they hold just as much of an impact in my position as a student journalist as your position as a citizen with rights. Thanks to the Framers of the Constitution, you have the natural born right to express yourself in all aspects of your life. This is a great freedom that most immigrants look forward to as they arrive to what America has deemed a “free land,” yet what about me? Should we as American citizens accept the fact that your freedom of speech is protected while mine is limited? We need to wake up and realize that this issue of censorship in schools is and has been a direct violation of the First Amendment. In other words, this phenomenon poses a real threat to freedom.

Some may argue that some content should be regulated and or censored. Yet I question this statement. I want to know what they are so afraid of. What, that they are going to read their teenagers high school newspaper and find a secular article or an opposing viewpoint? Let me ask you this, would the alternative be worse than our present circumstances? Picture this, you wake up in the morning to turn on the news, or read your newspaper on your way to work. You discover that only the opinions of the newspaper editors and media owners are expressed in papers, magazines and television stations. You can no longer seem to get the full story of anything anymore. Also, the library books in our educational institutions are regulated by people who share different opinions from yours. Maybe you notice that a white supremacist has taken all black owned books from the shelves. Or that an African American school district member decides to only fill his library with Black history books and refrains from allowing any other non-black published books in the libraries of his school. Is this reality better? Most importantly, how would you know what your opinion is if you haven’t heard more than one? The answer is you can’t. Until you hear the opinions and expressions of others, you will not be able to form one of your own. Instead you will be stuck in a place where you would have to rely on the closest or most popular opinion to shape your view on the world or situation. This alternative would be similar to writing a history paper with only the winner’s viewpoint. During this research, wouldn’t you most likely agree with the winner?

In conclusion, if the trend of censoring continues in schools, our students as well as the public will become ignorant of the important aspects that shape America. The rights and freedoms that silence dictatorship and encourage democracy. Censorship is a serious problem, yet it is only a symptom of  control. It is true, everyone needs balance, and this is the reason for our judicial system and law and order. However, we as American citizens need to determine the line between an authority’s power to control and a citizen’s right in the constitution. Only then will we have prevented this threat to freedom from becoming an attack to American society.