Constitution Day

Constitution Day is Sept. 17, so now is a great time to plan  your Constitution Day activity. The beginning of the year is a great time to start a discussion with your students concerning the importance of the First Amendment. Whether it’s a celebration with a school-wide activity or Constitution-Day themed cake it’s a great time to discuss your state law status and ask the students what they might do if someone were to try to censor their work. 

This attention to the First Amendment may lead one of your students into action. When I advised, one of my editors-in-chief from the early 2000s, crafted a plan afterward and then passed this plan off to the next editor-in-chief. The plan outlined what to do if an administrator were to try to censor material and what limitations I would have in helping them. They included the contact information of another adviser and a list of organizations to call if they had an issue. The students knew if they had an issue, they needed to be the ones to fight a censorship attempt, and they knew I had to let them fight it.

Thankfully, my students never needed the step-by-step process. However, not all students are this lucky. For this Constitution Day celebration, it might be a good idea to let students know what might happen — and what their steps could be — if an attempt at censorship were made. If you need help with this, please reach out to FIRE, SPLC and JEA’s SPRC.

Read in the original Weekly Scroll here.