Wednesday, November 30, 2005

Civics Lesson

There's nothing like a good dose of censorship at 7am to get my blood boiling. Apparently, the First Amendment is truly dead. First, a study of high school students, teachers, and administrators earlier this year revealed that a high percentage believe that the First Amendment goes too far in protecting our rights. And now, in a high school in Tennessee, student editors have had an edition of the school newspaper seized because the administration wants to see them "re-write" certain sections so as not to offend anyone (see CNN story here).

I was the editor of our high school newspaper. I guess the First Amendment was different then. I was given the same rights as the local journalists for the various area newspapers. I even got to interview President Reagan when he visited the area right after he was elected for his first term, just like every other adult journalist. It was an honor. While, I may not have agreed with his politics and even wrote an editorial for the same issue my interview was published in which I lambasted Reagan on his position on several issues. Not once was any piece ever censored by my school administration. No matter how much they disagreed with the paper's position on a subject. It just wasn't acceptable besides being illegal.

Too bad today's students and administrators alike don't have a good grasp of the Constitution. Sadder still is they don’t seem to care…