Censorship Issues: Missouri Hazelwood School

Sophia Pritchard

Mrs. Sherman

Acc. English II Period 6

March 22, 2023

CENSORSHIP ISSUES While reviewing a school newspaper, a principal in the Missouri Hazelwood School district deemed two of the articles too “inappropriate” for publication. The articles were specifically about the effects of divorce and teenage pregnancy on young adults and teenagers. The principal had the articles removed before printing and publication. A group of students filed a lawsuit against the Hazelwood School District claiming that removing the articles violates their First Amendment rights. After some time the case reached the Supreme Court. They determined that the censorship of the kid’s articles was not a violation of the First Amendment and the teachers

The First Amendment does have some recognized exceptions, but none apply to this situation. Censorship is the repression of certain books, music, media, or speech. The First Amendment was made to protect common citizens from being censored by the government, so why do these students not count? Censorship does not benefit children because it threatens the First Amendment, restricts education, and is used for political control. Censorship does not benefit children because it violates their First Amendment rights. Commonly, when the argument of censorship comes up, people fail to mention that students’ rights are being violated. Just like adults, students are human too, and deserve to be treated the same; due to that reason, banning books and media becomes questionable, "The removal of books from public schools libraries involves questions of free speech, because the right to receive expression goes hand in hand with the right to speak freely under the first amendment of the constitution” (Tylor). Although

As a child, one of your main goals is to develop, learn, and grow as a person, but when your access to education is limited how are you able to do that? Schools are supposed to provide safe learning environments, this includes safe learning environments for tough subjects like crime or politics. Many people against censorship in schools bring up the fact that schools should be encouraging students to be curious and learn about new topics (Aliprandini and Mcmahon 1-3). This is especially true when it comes to teenagers. Teens are known for making stupid mistakes, as well as life-changing mistakes like teen pregnancy. Censoring topics like sex education or homosexual relationships does nothing but harm. Teenagers are unable to learn about these topics in safe environments and might end up making a life-changing mistake. People might argue that sex education should be taught at home by parents, but how do we know they are correctly educated on the subject, that is, if they even have the talk with their kids. By making sex education a required class, teens are more likely to make smart and informed decisions about their bodies. Not only does it educate them now, it also allows them to grow into smart adults. Moreover, when a group of people removes certain topics from curriculums or bans books it tends to be extremely biased, "In Pico (District vs. Pico) the school board had removed 11