In recent months, the term “free speech” has become a buzzword. Unfortunately, and perhaps not unexpectedly, so has the term “censorship.” Within the United States’ current political climate, suppression of free speech continues to worsen. Take, for example, the recent suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night talk show, the (mostly symbolic) government defunding of NPR, and, as seen on C-Span, President Donald Trump’s dismissal of negative news about himself as “really illegal, personally.” In politically turbulent times, it is especially important to understand what “free speech” entails. How does our role as students qualify our explicit right to free speech? Consequently, how do we properly exercise our freedom of speech in a school environment? It is not enough to know that such a right exists: to exercise our right to free speech responsibly, we must know what it entails and stay informed on the topics about which we speak.
The First Amendment grants U.S. citizens the right to freedom of speech. Students’ rights align. In the landmark 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines, students sued a school district after their protest of the Vietnam War—wearing black armbands—resulted in their suspension. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the students, establishing a precedent that First Amendment protections extend to students, even in a public school setting.
However, special cases limit our ability to speak freely. If a student’s actions “materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school,” schools can censor students—a metric deemed the “Tinker Test,” a standard also set by Tinker v. Des Moines. Furthermore, in 1989, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the principal (Deborah Morse) in the case Morse v. Frederick, establishing that student speech promoting illegal drug use and other school-illegal activities is unacceptable. The student in question, Joseph Frederick, had been suspended for posting at a school-sponsored event a sign that read “BONG HiTS 4 JESUS,” thereby advocating for marijuana use.
From these parameters, it is clear that we as students possess the right to responsible civil discourse. We are entitled to participate in political activism and religious expression within our school environment; therefore, we must continue to view school as a safe place to express ourselves. In your AP Government class, you should feel comfortable holding a stance and debating it with your peers without fearing animosity for your beliefs. We must create an environment that cultivates intelligent, productive conversation rather than shutting down opinions that differ from our own.
With free speech, however, comes responsibility. It is one thing to know our rights, but it is another to exercise them in a responsible and informed way. Unfortunately, Great Neck’s bubble-like nature often disincentivizes students from keeping up with current events. Because the internet is oversaturated with news, not all of it important, people everywhere struggle to sift through the sheer volume of information available to them. To curate their online experiences, people often gravitate toward news that most relates to themselves and block out what they consider to be “irrelevant.” Unfortunately, in well-off towns like Great Neck, where ignoring politics, conflicts, and related strife is easy, these “irrelevant” topics end up being—surprise—politics, conflict, and related strife. Logic, not malice, causes this phenomenon. If a person’s environment does not make them aware of an event, it comes as no surprise that they might unintentionally ignore it. For example, most South High students probably have not felt the effects of the ongoing government shutdown, despite the reduction or halting of all “non-essential” services and agencies, such as food assistance programs, federally funded preschools, the CDC, and the NIH (Zurcher and Fitzgerald). Great Neck’s insular nature already discourages staying informed, and the daunting scope of current events worsens this issue. Students ignore the news for a few common reasons: headlines are “too depressing,” current events are “too much to process,” and there exists no clear entry point into the quickly-moving news cycle.
However, current events can be approachable. If you don’t know where to start, create a pipeline for yourself. You probably already see short-form social media content about current events. This is a good start, but given the internet’s penchant for misinformation, you must be discerning. Use social media to find out that something is happening, then visit a reputable news source to find out what is actually happening. A pipeline only works if it leads somewhere!
Reading the news doesn’t have to be a burden. Browse Apple News headlines on the bus or explore a news site during downtime. It is our civic responsibility to each pop our Great Neck bubbles—to understand the larger world in which we live. Words based upon misinformation, though perhaps not malicious, do more harm than good. Only by staying informed can we responsibly and productively exercise our right to free speech.
