Freedom of speech should be utilized for good not evil

By Kam B. and Kassadi H.

People often take freedom of speech and turn it into hate speech by attacking a race or religion when it should be used to spread positive messages. We even, sadly, see this at Airport High School. Truth be told, some Supreme Court decisions--such as Hazelwood vs. Khulmeier--allows schools to censor us, but have they gone too far? In our opinion, our 1st amendment right to say what we want should have more value at school, but it’s important to use this right the right way.  

First of all, freedom of speech should be used with good intentions & not to spread hate. For example, a topic that doesn’t shine negative light is a review for the movie They Cloned Tyrone. They Cloned Tyrone is an excellent cinematic masterpiece for its insight, sci fi conspiracy mayhem and story-telling. Another film that can be called a masterpiece is Sinners. Sharing our opinion on these films in general and at school would be a good use of our freedom of speech, even if the movies do have some controversial parts.

Secondly, you should avoid certain types of free speech.  Using your right of free speech in a negative way gives people a chance to judge your character in a negative way. For instance if one were to say something racist, sexist, homophobic or people just misunderstanding your viewpoint a lot of people would judge and look at you differently because of one simple sentence. We would even say they have the right depending on what you say. An example is The New York Times always gets backlash for things on various topics but they are to keep their name because of popularity, they still do a lot of things right. If this newspaper were to publish sketchy or inaccurate content, in some ways they have the freedom to do so, but it would tarnish their reputation. 

Lastly, and circling back to AHS, freedom of speech should be used more in schools. Freedom of speech should be used in schools because kids are afraid to be a part of the school. Sports, clubs, meeting people, talking it's just different, like a divide. We believe that the opposite of what schools are supposed to be. Students can feel restricted from the things they can do or say on a topic that may be controversial due to the outcome of being judged by others or the consequences that can come from administration at Airport. Another example is what if somebody's life was on the line. A person could be getting bullied in any type of way and said person could be afraid to speak about it all because they don't want something to happen to them due to what they are doing or saying.

Some people might say that people need to hear the truth, the whole truth, even if it's harsh or ugly. In other words, they might advocate for free speech in all forms, even if it is harsh or offensive towards others, but we do not agree with that.  We would say you're not wrong but in our opinion there’s always a fine line on the way you should go about saying your opinion with your tone of voice or the words you choose to use. We would say think about the amount of people who could be reading said article, there’s just some things some people can’t handle or shouldn’t for them or you.

In conclusion, we believe that using your voice in a positive way no matter the place or time should be done in a kind, professional manner. We also believe that students should be able to use their voices more throughout our school to impact the school in a positive way, students should not be limited on the things they can say to make a change. You shouldn't use freedom of speech in a negative way to bring people down, giving them the chance to judge your character. If you feel strongly about a certain topic no matter how controversial it may be you are always allowed the right to use your freedom of speech to speak up about it, but you should always go about it in a positive way by bringing others down by being blatantly disrespectful.