More than half of high-school students in the U.S. think the
press has too much freedom and should be censored, according to a
study released in January. It also found many high school-age
students do not know the rights granted to them by the First
Amendment and think the Internet should be more restricted.
Hollister – More than half of high-school students in the U.S. think the press has too much freedom and should be censored, according to a study released in January. It also found many high school-age students do not know the rights granted to them by the First Amendment and think the Internet should be more restricted.
The study, done by the John S. and James F. Knight Foundation, also found that three-fourths of high school students did not know how they felt about the First Amendment or admitted that they took it for granted. Seventy-five percent thought flag burning was illegal, despite it being considered an integral part of freedom of speech.
“People nowadays spend a lot of time on English and math because of No Child Left Behind and as a result civic education has been left behind,” said Warren Watson, director of J-Ideas at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind., a program that promotes journalism in American high schools and which is funded by the Knight Foundation.
The cutting of journalism classes and student papers in schools in recent decades has contributed to a population of young adults that knows little about what the First Amendment guarantees and why it is important to protect it, said Warren.
Some students interviewed at San Benito High School were only vaguely familiar with the First Amendment, saying they learned about it in class, but had forgotten the details.
“First Amendment, is that like freedom of speech?” said Adriana Velasco, 15, and a sophomore at San Benito High School. Velasco said she enjoyed reading newspapers and was in a reading class where she spent about 30 minutes reading local press every other day.
“I think it’s important to read about what happens, even when it’s about bad things,” she said. “It makes you open your eyes.”
Others were more familiar with the rights the amendment granted, but thought papers often printed information that was untrue and libelous. Stefany James, 17, said she didn’t think censoring media was necessary, although she did favor creating guidelines that would spell out what papers could or could not do.
“A lot of controversies come out after the fact, so something that could be given to media sources such as tabloids or weeklies would prevent that,” she said.
Duffy Berrett, 17, said he valued freedom of speech because he had been raised to respect people’s rights despite their color, sexuality or background.
“I think people should be able to say what they want,” said Berrett. The senior, who is in student government and is taking a civics course, pointed to the Federal Communication Commission’s censoring of shock jock Howard Stern’s comments and said he thought the action went again the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution.
“Just because they think it’s inappropriate, doesn’t give them the right to restrict it,” he said.
The Knight study also found that 52 percent of students who are not involved in student media nor are enrolled in government or civics courses take the First Amendment for granted. Yet among those involved in campus newspapers or taking civics classes, the number plummets to 28 percent, pointing to a direct correlation between studying freedom of speech and valuing its importance, the report concluded.
In recent years, support for the First Amendment has fluctuated. After the Sept. 11 attacks, more Americans thought that the law, a cornerstone of the Bill of Rights, went too far in granting people specific rights, according to surveys conducted by the Freedom Forum, a nonpartisan foundation dedicated to freedom of speech.
More information about the study, including the full report, is available at www.knightfdn.org
Karina Ioffee covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach her at (831)637-5566 ext. 335 or [email protected]
