Freedom of Speech Today

The citizens of the United States of America exercise their First Amendment right, freedom of speech in their day to day lives. Being able to voice their opinion and speak up for what they believe in is what gives our country its degree of autonomy. Having the freedom of speech is a blissful thing that people in other countries long for; such lack of censorship. Despite this freedom, it is not a free for all and has to be regulated to protect our communal balance and integrity.

Looking specifically at the negative impacts of this freedom, high school is a perfect example. The technology we have today gives people the ability to express their thoughts and opinions (positive or negative) from behind a screen.

Seemingly protecting their integrity despite being able to be seen virtually by anyone. The First Amendment right to freedom of speech, brings up the question of whether or not schools should be allowed to limit students’ virtual freedom of speech. To me, schools should be able to limit the extent of students online speech being that cyberbullying is an extensive issue paying a toll on both students and staff, in turn causing disruptions in learning, and the violation of civil rights.

As a twelfth grade student, I know school is full of nasty online comments affecting a range of people. When analyzing a survey given to a range of students (aged 10-18 years old) in a large southern U.S. school district, 41.7% of students have been cyberbullied in their lifetime.(Doc A) However, cyberbullying is not something that is exclusive to teenagers. When looking at a survey on a group of British school teachers, 15.1% of surveyed participants have been cyberbullied. These incidents were perpetrated by students, students parents, their colleagues and even their manager.

I feel as though some people find the cause of online bullying and harassment to due with the lack of maturity and just being a teenager. In turn, now knowing that even adults are victims and perpetrators of this issue gives even more of a reason to limit students’ online speech in efforts to dwindle down the amount of perpetrators. Considering the variety in victims and perpetrators it can be inferred that the educational environment can be compromised. While some disruptive chit-chat is expected from students, one instance between teacher Randy Nunemacher and a group of unruly students shows cyber bullyings’ disruption to learning.

This interaction was the cause of a MySpace profile created to make fun of the schools principal, James McGonigle using vulgar and offensive language. In turn, causing not only teachers confronting McGonigle about the harassment, but Nunemachers five to six minute exchange with the group of disruptive students who had been told to stop discussing the profile three times.(Doc D) The ability to create these kinds of negative social media pages are clearly causing distractions that can be lessened with a restricted online freedom of speech. The interruption of education due to cyberbullying is also affecting teachers. The survey given to the British school teachers questioned how the bullying affected them. 15.9% of the teachers said the bullying affected their productivity or teaching effectiveness, while 38.6% of teachers said their confidence and self esteem was reduced.

When asked who was cyberbullying them, 44.2% of them said the perpetrator was a student.(Doc B) When a teachers productivity is being reduced due to cyberbullying it is not only affecting their ability to teach effectively, but is decreasing the quality of education of the students and creating a hostile environment. If schools limit the students online freedom of speech, not only will the likelihood of classroom disruptions regarding these incidents lessen but the students will be able to have a comfortable learning environment taught by a teacher at their fullest potential.

A common issue in our day and age is the effectiveness of dealing with civil rights violations. Harassment comes in all forms. Physical, face to face slander, written threats, and all other actions causing physical threat, harm, or humiliation. Several of which can be done through social media.(Doc A) In my opinion the cause of harassment has a lot to do with someone targeting someone's’ race, nationality, sex, and sometimes disability. According to Russlyn Ali of the U.S. Department of Education for Civil Rights states when harassment is subject to civil rights laws that the Office of Civil Rights enforces those laws.

When harassment is brought to the schools attention they are responsible for addressing it.(Doc A) Several instances that happened to me, when cyberbullying is reported it seems to be brushed off. I have seen so many online bashes at peoples disability and race, and nothing was done. As a country that is still struggling with discriminatory acts and enforcing civil rights, at the hand of online civil rights violations the school should limit the students freedom of online speech.

It has been shown here that cyberbullying is a growing epidemic affecting our community. Cyberbullying is no less important and pays a toll on the comfort of victims in school. The lack of restrictions on what can and can’t be posted is causing the spread of cyberbullying. With the ability for schools to limit students online freedom of speech the disruptions in school will decrease, the teachers and students will be more at ease at school, and continue to enforce civil rights laws. 

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