Polarizing Column

Suburban Denver school fires teachers after pro-choice column runs in student magazine

Regis Jesuit High School retracted the winter issue of its student magazine because it contained an op-ed from a student expressing pro-choice abortion views, and fired both of the magazine’s faculty advisors, according to Colorado Sentinel sources.

Elevate, a Regis Jesuit student magazine, publishes in print and online four times a year. In the Winter 2021 Edition, a student wrote an opinion piece titled, “The battle for our bodies: confronting abortion and human rights.”

The piece is written from a pro-choice point of view, and argues that making abortion illegal causes women to die from unsafe illegal procedures, and that there is a meaningful distinction between a fetus and a baby.

Editions of the magazine are printed and also hosted online on the publishing platform Issuu. In place of the winter edition, a letter signed by the school’s president and principal says that it has been retracted in its entirety due to the op-ed.

Here’s what you can do:

Private school students, as in Colorado, don’t have the same rights as public school students. If a Catholic school, such as Regis, feels that it needs to restrict student First Amendment rights, it can do so.

Further, while Colorado’s student free expression law now protects advisers, that’s again only at public schools.

But private schools don’t have to punish students and fire teachers, and even if they do, censored private school students have some recourse. Here’s a great summary by Mike Hiestand, a staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center, of what students at private schools can do if they feel they’ve been unlawfully censored.

Bottom line: either your state needs a New Voices Law that protects student expression in private schools, or you need to work with your private school administrators to set policy that would grant that freedom to students.

In any case, it’s time for you and your Quill and Scroll chapter to join the SPLC in its plans for Student Press Freedom Day, scheduled for Feb. 24. The theme is #unmuteyourself. It’s part of Scholastic Journalism Week, which is an initiative of the Journalism Education Association.

Be active and support student voices and freedom of expression in your school, public or private.

COVID cases spread rapidly

Teens and young adults are driving COVID-19 cases in the U.S.

An uptick in Covid among under-50s coincides with surge in cases among young children and the troubling increase in pediatric hospitalizations.

As the U.S. is seeing record numbers of daily coronavirus cases driven by the highly transmissible Omicron variant, public health authorities nationwide have said that teens and younger adults are helping fuel this increase.

The U.S. seven-day average for pediatric hospitalizations increased 58%, to 334, from Dec. 21-27. The increase in hospitalizations for all age groups was about 19%. Less than 25% of U.S. children are vaccinated, Reuters reported.

Here’s what you can do:

The pandemic still rages on, and though it may seem boring we must continue to tell its story. This time students are the ones driving the rise of cases, which means we have to teach each other about the continued seriousness of the situation.

Have you been back in the school since the holiday break? What has attendance been like? How does it compare to early January 2021 or January 2020, right before the pandemic began to shut down many U.S. schools?

If you live in the U.S., does your community fit into the new statistics of increased cases and hospitalizations?

If you live outside of the U.S., what age group is driving up the cases in your country? What might your country be doing differently than the US in prevention and spread.

We need to have a conversation between young people about how we can do better.

Is personal responsibility enough or do governments need to intervene?

Desegregation in 2022

In Minneapolis schools, white families asked to help do the integrating

In a citywide overhaul, a beloved Minneapolis Black-majority high school was rezoned to include white students from a richer neighborhood. It has been hard for everyone.

Minneapolis, among the most segregated school districts in the country, with one of the widest racial academic gaps, is in the midst of a sweeping plan to overhaul and integrate its schools. And unlike previous desegregation efforts, which typically required children of color to travel to white schools, Minneapolis officials are asking white families to help do the integrating. It’s a newer approach being embraced by a small group of urban districts across the country.

Here’s what you can do:

Brown vs. Board of Education was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court nearly 70 years ago, and changes still need to be made.

As additional inclusion measures are made at schools across the country, pay attention to how communities react and what schools are moved to make similar decisions.

Has your school district made an effort to break down walls? Tell that story.

Jane Bannester, Ritenour High School Broadcast Journalism Teacher disclosed a few tips on reporting on race and racism in schools through the lens of a teacher. Here are some of those tips:

• Check your own racial biases and beliefs
• Use local city and school data — don’t rely on state and national numbers only
• Allow youth voices to be your guide
• Interview all sides and perspectives

Student voices matter!

Kentucky legislators propose to limit student voices on school decision-making panels

Two months ago, the state of Kentucky decided to allow non-voting high school students on School-Based Decision Making Councils (SBDMs), but with the introduction of Senate Bill 1 on Tuesday, that decision would be reversed.

The Kentucky Student Voice Team said that they strongly oppose SB1 as it will stifle the voices of Kentucky students as they make an effort to make Kentucky schools safer, more inclusive, and more engaging.

SBDMs currently govern student lives and experience in Kentucky schools, and the passing of SB1 would disempower the students on these councils.

Here’s what you can do:

Whether you live in Kentucky or elsewhere, pay attention to what education bills go through your state. January typically marks the beginning of the legislative session and this is when a ton of bills will be introduced at once.

Check this calendar to see when your state’s legislative session begins.

It can be overwhelming but if your school paper just focusses on education bills, or bills affecting you community, it can narrow down the process.

Most state legislative websites can be searched by keyword, so just searching “Education” can guide you to the bills your newspaper should cover.

Following up on these bills, and trying to attend committee meetings and chamber debates can help you to not only get the quotes needed for your story, but will help you to better understand the legislative process.