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How many times has something that you wanted to talk about been shut down or censored? Throughout your life, you may have experienced small moments of censorship at home, in school, or even online—whether that may be through your posts getting taken down online or you not being able to talk about something, censorship can happen.
But first, what even is censorship? Censorship is suppressing what is being said through newspapers, stories, or what is posted online. If you post a hate comment on your favorite social media platform like Instagram, it might get taken down which is a form of censorship. Although some people say that the 1st Amendment should protect them from being censored, freedom of speech does not always work that way. Freedom of speech is important, but when a privately owned business censors something, that is their choice because it doesn’t fall under the protection of free speech.
When asked if hate speech or harmful speech should be counted as a form of free speech, Jennifer Emkow responded, “I’m going to say yes, because it is free speech. When it comes to putting people in danger, for instance, screaming “bomb!” in a room full of people, I would say no. There are actually laws put into place for that.” Emkow runs the Yearbook for Riley High School. She is also a wonderful teacher and part of the English department.
Censorship can be seen in the media across the globe, but it is prominent in countries such as China, Russia, and North Korea. They have major rules in place for what you can say online, in public, and even in your private homes. Luckily, the United States doesn’t have as strong of a say in what goes out in the media. There are some things that can be taken down, but a majority of the time those are instances of hate speech of some sort. Freedom of speech is a huge topic in the U.S., with people wanting to be able to say “anything” that they want.
For the newspaper here at Riley High School, certain topics do get censored, like topics that can be seen as highly controversial or highly opinionated. The newspaper tries to stay away from highly political topics, such as who is in office, or anything that makes the school newspaper or the school, in general, look bad. This avoids potential backlash and protects the student writers who might get the brunt of that backlash. However, this is not unique to high school publications.
Censorship in the school building in classrooms is a big discussion right now across the state of Indiana. Even though the HB1134 bill didn’t pass, it was a stressful time for teachers and students alike. Students wouldn’t be able to talk to their teachers about important topics regarding themselves without having parental consent, and teachers would have to report things that the students are talking about to their parents. Many teachers didn’t agree with this bill, Kennedy Ward being one of them, who said: “No. I don’t agree with the bill. I’m a proponent of the separation of church and state and this seems like it’s merging towards the connection of church and state.”
Even though censorship is a big thing in schools and the school newspaper, it can sometimes be for the best. While the students are going to experience and hear about these things anyway, it can create a more professional sense of well-being for the building. For example, if we are talking about police brutality, there could be a potential pushback from people who support the police. Censorship doesn’t always have to be seen as a bad thing, but it would be nice to talk about whatever you want in schools.
A lot of students have platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat where they can share their personal opinions and beliefs, and a majority of the time those posts won’t get censored—it just depends on what the topic is over. Human rights issues won’t get censored or anything that has to do with mental health (usually), but sometimes kids can’t even go online to express how they feel. They have the school building and that is all. If they want to do a story over something they want to talk about, it may get censored because it could be deemed as not school appropriate.
Although our newspaper gets to talk about almost anything we want just as long as it is in a way that isn’t completely biased or opinionated, we can still run into problems. This year, the Riley Newspaper has paid more attention to potential unprofessional biases, but there are still things we need to be careful writing about.
Censorship is a problem that schools will always face, but it is one that the students have learned to overcome. You can still talk about the things that you want to talk about, but just make sure it is in a safe and respectful way. Censorship is always going to be here, but it is a problem we’ve seen for many years that won’t be going away any time soon.
