Even though freedom of the press and freedom of speech are rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution, we still must be vigilant about making sure these rights are not violated. High school newspapers are wrestling with these issues every day.A girl by the name of Krystal Meyers wrote an article for her school newspaper about birth control. To her dismay, the school principal banned all copies of the newspaper for that week due to the explicit content she used when describing the different kinds of birth control. She responded by saying, “people need to know we are being censored and it’s not right at all.”

Meyers and the Editor for the newspaper, Brittany Thomas, fought hard to have the school release the paper, but unfortunately it fell through. They had refused to make the changes required by school officials.

The decision made by the school to confiscate all of the papers was wrong. Birth control is an issue for many students and they simply wanted to address the situation. Sure, there might have been explicit content in the article that she wrote, but she wasn’t intentionally trying to anger people.

With articles related to sex, you’re going to have content that some people find distasteful, and that’s just the way it is. Members of the school community would actually benefit from such an article because it could inform them of their birth control options. As long as it’s written well with correct information, it should not be a problem.

I also disagree with the fact that the paper was removed because of the age of the readers. I understand that there are younger underclassmen who aren’t used to reading sexually related material, but as I mentioned before, they are going to have to learn about the subject sooner or later. I assume that there are still sex education classes in high school, are there not?

Folks, the real issue here is not about birth control, but about freedom of the press. The First Amendment gives many people the opportunity to express their own opinions and Americans should be able to take advantage of this Amendment without any interference from the hierarchy, even if the setting is a school.

In December 1965, two Iowa residents named John and Mary Beth Tinker decided to wear black armbands to school. They were suspended by the school board that passed a policy banning the wearing of armbands to school. When the students returned from their suspensions, they disregarded the policy and they were suspended from school until January 1966.

In the 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines in 1969, Justice Abe Fortas, speaking for the majority, said that, “In the absence of a specific showing of constitutionally valid reasons to regulate their speech, students are entitled to freedom of expression of their views.”

The bottom line is that if you don’t like something you read in a newspaper or watch on TV, simply put it down or turn it off. Case closed.