Drawing Lines

When I first moved to Zeeland, Michigan in the summer of 1998, I had no Idea that I was entering the hotbed of censorship & controversy (at least that was how it came to be known in my sophomore year of highschool – I’m sure some of you remember the Zeeland Highschool student who was suspended for wearing a Korn t-shirt) The district had a policy in place that prohibited clothing “bearing any references to obscenity, drugs, violence, or sexual innuendo”, which made the Administrator’s decision a stretch at best – as the shirt didn’t make any specific refrences to any of those things, only to the rock band Korn. It was quite a scandal for us at the time and it ended up generating a ton of publicity for the band (which was quite amusing).

I mention this because, for as much negative publicity this generated for the school, it was also an invaluable lesson in civic responsibility-not a sammeless plug for a subpar and shoddy rock band, mind you.  The student body ended up circulating a petition condemning Eric’s suspension as well as the administration’s censorship,and collecting 400+ signatures within the school. It didn’t happen right away, but over the next year the Administration reversed its position on the band t-shirts.  As trivial and silly as this seems now, at that time we found that we could make our voice heard – and prompt change. 

I recently read an article in the Everett Herald which shed some light on the lines that are being drawn by student groups advocating First Ammendment rights, and school administrations that want oversight of student publications.  Student editors at Everett Highschool in Washington, chose not to publish their school newspaper when the administration insisted that the student-authored paper be submitted for review before it would be published. Student editors felt that the review process was a violation of their First Amendment rights and filed suit – a trial is scheduled for May in Seattle. However, what caught my attention was the a survey that was cited in the same article. The survey reported that;

49 percent of highschool students agreed with the statement that “It is OK for the government to censor the news.” That’s much more disturbing than bad math scores.

“Civics education, especially learning about the protections guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, is essential if we want our kids to grow up to be good citizens,” Upthegrove said.

The survey also found:

* Seventy-five percent of high school students erroneously think that flag burning is illegal.

* Half believe the government can censor the Internet.

* More than a third think the First Amendment “goes too far” in the rights it guarantees.

* More than one in five schools offer no media opportunities; of the high schools that do not offer student newspapers, 40 percent have eliminated them in the last five years.

The results of the Knight Foundation Survey are quite disturbing.  The trouble is that it seems to attribute its results to a decline in student authored newspapers and “media opprotunities.” As important as these are I can’t help but feel that there is an overall trend in public education to avoid controversy – something far more damaging to students that a lack of media opprotunities or journalism classes. By controversy, I mean that many important historical and social events, as well as literature are presented in a one-sided manner that focuses on producing test questions, rather than engaging students in critical thought and debate. The ‘T-shirt scandal’ was a rare chance for us as highschool students to debate and attempt to change rules we believed violated our rights. Looking back it’s seems silly, even trivial, but the lesson is still there. I can only remember only one class in highschool that challenged me in a similar way – my AP English Literature class.  In our discussions of Orwell, Yeats especially Shakespeare, everything was up for debate. Our instructor did a great job of creating an environment where most of the students would share their own ideas freely; where respectful debate and controversy were encouraged.  It’s a lofty and maybe impossible goal, but I think if students could be engaged in learning environments like this, perhaps we would see fewer survey results like those above.

~Nathan