27 been chastised by other students for “ allowing ” someone to write an opinion column on Planned Parenthood and Black Lives / All Lives Matter , opinions with which my editorial staff disagreed . As long as I am advising , we will continue to work to celebrate all voices . Only by educating students on the importance of dissent will we change this perception that we all must adhere to one stance and live in a spiral of silence .
27 been chastised by other students for “ allowing ” someone to write an opinion column on Planned Parenthood and Black Lives / All Lives Matter , opinions with which my editorial staff disagreed . As long as I am advising , we will continue to work to celebrate all voices . Only by educating students on the importance of dissent will we change this perception that we all must adhere to one stance and live in a spiral of silence .
It ’ s no surprise that in 2011 , the Knight Foundation reported “ only 35 percent of teachers agree high school students should be allowed to report controversial stories in their student newspapers without the approval of school authorities .” It ’ s no surprise that in 2016 , the same organization found 54 percent of the college students surveyed say they refrain from speaking at times because they are afraid that others might find the speech offensive .
These alarming statistics show the need to work to empower the voices of student journalists and the voice of the voiceless .
I ’ ve known this since I was a student editor at Indiana University , and we chronicled the life of a 28-year-old resident and university speaker with AIDS in the
1994 Arbutus yearbook . The eightpage coverage was published five years after 18-year-old AIDS fighter Ryan White ’ s death . The story about Jay Sprinkle , the student subject of our story , showed the joy , hardships and prejudice he experienced . While working on the last yearbook deadline , we learned Jay had lost his fight against AIDS . This experience taught us more than just journalism . It taught us about humanity and the need to show we are all people . Seeing this story published after what Ryan White experienced reinforced the need to tell the story of the voiceless , and hopefully lead to a better understanding of the issue .
As an adviser , I see this need to understand humanity today as my own students continue to grapple in their understanding of the power of voices , whether they are their own or others . We learned this when we included extended coverage on race in April and May of this past year . I was stunned to see how many of my own students of color hesitated to write about their own experiences . After several lengthy discussions with the editors , the students of color started telling their stories . Their voices were heard .
Although this experience was formative for many of my students , the most powerful moment of my teaching career happened this year while at the NSPA / JEA convention in Los Angeles . Paula Kashtan , a former St . Louis Park student and then adviser , contacted me prior to our departure and asked if the Park students could meet with her students . St . Louis Park is a first-ring suburb of Minneapolis . Kashtan ’ s students attend school in South Central Los Angeles .
I loaded our 10 students and another teacher chaperone into a van and we traveled to meet the group for a 4 p . m . dinner in South Central L . A . During our dinner , students talked about the usual teenage concerns : prom , standardized tests , dating , media , staff cohesion and future plans . We ended with a lot of pictures and stories , but more importantly , we left with an understanding about having an open mind and that together we are better . This thread continued during Juan Antonio Vargas ’ keynote about his Words Matter campaign , when one of her students joined our group . My students left the convention with more than just an understanding of their privilege ; they left with an understanding of a need to show the voice of those silenced because of race , and they saw their words really do matter . Upon returning , they set a goal of