Over 5,000 views per day flood the Pathfinder site, stirring up conversation in our school halls and in the homes of families. We have the ability to access and using an online public forum to express our opinions and exercise the First Amendment. Although this is great, there is no lie that we’ve experienced a few problems in the past, and even today they continue. Despite these, our newspaper has continued to maintain positive and have created a larger voice in our school.

School newspapers matter

The Pathfinder provides an opportunity for anyone in our community to reach and spread awareness of events and issues. The newspaper affects everyone in our school and even our outside community. I know many people on our staff who share their stories with family and friends to keep them updated about current events going on in their lives. It always makes me happy looking back on older stories and finding out new things about people who I see every day at school in the halls, or when I see stories about students who graduated that I never got to fully meet.

The newspaper can be referenced to and shared with anyone on the internet, with stories about people you see every day to events that went on in the community. I think people are forgetting how important a newspaper is, especially right now. Although the Pwestpathfinder.com might not be your first stop for information about current events going on the world, it is still a great source of information to get more involved with our community and school.

Journalism is under-protected

Although our school doesn’t experience any buffer with the administration and censorship, other schools across the nation experience this problem, and they are fairly local. In fact, only nine states in the entire United States have laws that protect the freedom of students using their First Amendment rights as part of a student press, and Missouri is not one of them. Our school board and head principal, Dr. Jeremy Mitchell, allows us to report on sensitive topics and freely write editorials, other schools around our district and in Missouri do not. Sensitive subjects such as discrimination in school or underage drinking among teens are completely censored and controlled in other schools which goes against the importance of even having a school newspaper.

This problem continuing to be dismissed across the nation is the Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier case where the “decision upheld the right of public high school administrators at Hazelwood East High School in suburban St. Louis, Missouri, to censor stories concerning teen pregnancy and the effects of divorce on children from a school-sponsored student newspaper,” according to the Scholastic page of education. The supreme court is still reviewing this case, but thankfully we are seeing some progress towards protecting the rights of the First Amendment for students.

Additionally, at Harrisonville High, a public school in Missouri, experienced a recent case of censorship from their school principal. The HHS Wildcat News website tried to report on the recent resignation of the district’s superintendent. On March 7, 2017, their head principal Andy Campbell told the student newspaper staff that all coverage of the story had to go through him before anything would be posted, or they would face serious consequences.

Although the principal wanted to make sure the story wasn’t based solely on rumors than facts, the school newspaper policy already states that they will “report news truthfully and accurately and act as an open forum for student expression.”

The principal had no legal power to substitute any material written by the high school press with his own personal preference, according to Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center. The problem with censorship is that newspapers become weak from the control of someone’s personal opinion and preference of what news can be shared or opinions talked about.

The school newspaper at Parkway West High, similar to Harrisonville High, explicitly states that all thoughts and opinions do not represent the school, but those of the writers. There have been more reports of student journalism being attacked than student journalism attacking other people with a malicious intent, according to the Student Press Association.

With a small population of students involved in this academic field, this problem is being overlooked by the majority of the students. The lack of support from states such as Missouri is more than disappointing but upsetting. While the administration at Parkway West is very supportive of the uncensored newspaper, the majority of student press is getting a bad representation due to the other student publications not being at their full potential.

Furthermore, media law attorney Jean Maneke says student journalists in Missouri do not have the same rights as working professionals. In fact, because of the existing case law of Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier, high school newspapers do not have the ‘same’ First Amendment. Leaving the First Amendment up to the state to decide and wage for students has been proven absurd and unfair in Missouri. Freedom of expression has no age limit, and the age of the students in journalism publications does not determine the legitimacy or professionalism of their work.

How to protect journalism

It is important that our readers and community continue to help us promote student journalism and contribute to it when they have something to say. The more involved we are in our newspaper the more awareness we can spread through it, from both sides of the party. There are small things that could be done such as teachers being more lenient with letting our staff members pull out students from class for interviews. Although it can be disruptive and interrupt a class lesson, taking interviews and talking with our interviewees one on one makes our newspaper more credible and helps our readers get the full grasp of our stories.

Additionally, if there are ever interview questions or polls that are sent out, students could open them and take them seriously. And of course, nothing makes our newspaper better than criticism, comments and opinions regarding our newspaper and the stories that are shared. These can not only support your local school newspaper, but any journalism establishment. It is important, more than ever, to be involved in a press of journalism so we can learn more stories about people and continue to educate ourselves about the world around us instead of continuing to have predetermined ideas.