Censorship in Schools

Danielle Hassan

Censorship in Schools

Through the last 50 years, school environments have been restraining students through acts of censorship which infringe on students' rights to freedom of speech and expression. It is becoming more and more difficult to wear a shirt , write an article, or even read a book without being punished for it.

Anywhere from fifth graders to high school students are taught that the First Amendment is the foundation for which all of the United States political freedom stands. Freedom of expression, freedom of speech; these are the things that separate the United States of America from other countries. Yet, the more one progresses through society, one can start to realize that their right to the First Amendment is a rather gray area.

Censorship is defined as the forbidding, blocking, limiting, or obstructing access to information for whatever reason. Censorship has taken on a negative, even demonized, loading in our US culture: however, using the above definition, parental and teacher gate-keeping are qualifying as typically positive and generally acceptable examples of censorship. Public schools are censoring things now more than ever. These acts of censoring minors should no longer be accepted as correct; rather, they should be viewed as undemocratic and unnecessary.

Enter into any journalism class and one can see that the First Amendment is read a little differently there. The topic of censorship of minors arose during the controversial era surrounding the Vietnam War. In the 1969 Tinker v. Des Moines case, high school students were suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the war. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students, saying that students do not check their constitutional rights at the school gates. The court declared that in school environments, students still retain their rights, as long as they are not causing a disruption and are expressing themselves in a peaceful manner.

However, in the late...