EDITORIAL – Students don’t know, receive rights

There’s just no talking to kids these days, with their ugly clothes and loud rock music and… There’s just no talking to kids these days, with their ugly clothes and loud rock music and fundamental misunderstanding of basic American values. A survey conducted by the University of Connecticut shows that many high school students either don’t know or don’t care about their first amendment rights, which guarantee, among other things, free speech and a free press.

The study found that little more than half the students surveyed thought newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval. As for the other 49 percent, they either favored government approval or had no opinion.

These numbers are shocking, yes, but what’s even more shocking is that only 80 percent of high school teachers and principals favored such a free press. What, exactly, do the other 20 percent of people responsible for molding young minds believe?

Even more appalling are the numbers associated with questions about high school newspapers. While students may think that regular newspapers should be government-approved, fewer thought that their school newspapers should have to curry such approval from school authorities.

Their teachers and principals, predictably, didn’t favor a free student press. The Associated Press reported that only 39 percent of teachers and 25 percent of principals thought that student newspapers shouldn’t have to run controversial issues by school authorities. From those numbers, it’s not a total mystery why most students don’t understand their full first amendment rights, considering that the people teaching them are hesitant to extend them.

A recent incident in Gwinnett County, Ga., proves this. Students at Berkmar High School weren’t allowed to read a point-counterpoint in the school newspaper on whether the school should have a gay, lesbian and straight club. Berkmar’s principal pulled the two columns in December, exercising his Supreme Court-granted right of prior review over the school newspaper. The columns were printed Jan. 25 in Gwinnett Opinions of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Principals, of course, have no incentive to allow school newspapers to flourish, especially when students want to write about controversial topics, like scandal or mismanagement, which could show the schools in a bad light. So, why should students know about their rights if they’re routinely denied them?

Even if they don’t receive those rights, there are always trusty high school civics classes. Well, maybe not. Civics has morphed into social studies or government. If this survey is any evidence, neither of them seems to be teaching kids about the U.S. Constitution.

Thanks to Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., one day a year — Sept. 17, the day the Constitution was signed in 1787 — will be set aside to teach about the document that founded and outlines our government. Now, the Constitution is a pretty long piece of parchment. We might want to think about having more than a day to educate students on their rights. Of course, if we did that, they might start exercising them.