Senior Legal Counsel Mike Hiestad from SLPC (Student Press Law Center) said censorship is on a drastic rise and has been more apparent in college educational systems throughout the nation. He said it is important for students to be able to express their freedom of speech, and it is their right to.

“We’re starting now to see crackdowns on speech. Even if citizen students look at the bar (threshold), it is really high, at least at the public college level. Students have the right to speak out.”

According to Assistant Principal Alonzo Park, the rise of censorship can be attributed to social pressures because individuals are fearful of being posted on social media to be canceled. 

“People are sometimes afraid to speak their truth and be recorded, and now it becomes clickbait. So I think we’ve censored ourselves as a society, just out of fear to be canceled,” Parks said.

According to math teacher Anson Opara, he has noticed a rise in censorship around lesson plans in the United States, and certain controversial material is being omitted from lessons.

“I’ve seen not necessarily here, but nationwide, I’ve seen some things where some books are being banned. Different topics are being challenged to take certain things like evolution and stuff out of their curricula,” Opara said.

History teacher Scott Miller said he feels like today’s censorship stems from people nominating themselves to be the judge of what can and cannot be said. According to him, people are strong-arming opposing groups to silence, which he feels is wrong.

“A lot of times right now politically, they’re people that are self-appointed and have sometimes the loudest voice, and they use that sometimes to bully people into being quiet and not expressing opinions. And I think that’s wrong, whether that happens on the left or the right,” Miller said.

Opara said there have not just been books that were canceled, but also many people, especially in the comedy industry, for speaking negatively about the current administration.

“Well, I’ve noticed outside of here, there’s been a lot of stuff in the media where it seems like there’s been a suppression in the comedic floor, people getting cancel culture, or even temporarily removed from some of their positions. People like Jimmy Kimmel were put off air by Disney, and it got political, and then they had him come back, but they were going to fire him,” Opara said.

Miller said people can surround themselves with outlets that only confirm their opinions, which only support their beliefs, without being exposed to others.

Recently, Jeff Bezos bought the New York Times, halting opinion-related stories from being published about Donald Trump, causing the opinion editor David Shipley to resign. Opara said freedom of speech is under attack by people buying the newspapers, restricting their content, and creating a new story.

“Right now it’s getting really challenging, especially in the political realm, where the idea before was freedom of speech, freedom of press, where now it seems like if you can pay for it, and you can own it. You can own the narrative,” Opara said.

Freshman Finn Staub said people self-censor themselves because they are fearful of how it might change people’s viewpoints of them. He said the environment around people plays a big part in how comfortable they feel speaking out.

“Sometimes I think that I avoid certain topics because I don’t know how other people feel about them. If I’m in a certain viewpoint and I don’t know what viewpoint they’re in, then I don’t think I would want to speak out and speak my feelings, because I don’t know how it will affect how we know each other and our relationship,” Staub said.

Junior Hannora Crouse said in a situation where there are conflicting viewpoints, she could see herself feeling less confident about saying what is on her mind. According to her, this is because she is scared of clashing perspectives impacting her relationships and popularity.

“If I did have differing opinions (from someone else), I would probably not feel as comfortable (sharing my thoughts), just like for fear that (it) can affect my friendships and social standings,” Crouse said.

Hiestad said, according to the Tinker standard, all students of a public institution in Tinker states have First Amendment free speech rights. It holds that schools cannot censor student publications; free speech, unless they can demonstrate that the speech is sufficiently substantial to disrupt the learning environment.

“The Tinker standard says students have the right to speak, at least in public institutions. As long as the speech is lawful, as long as it’s peaceful, you have the right to speak,” Hiestad said.

All posters put around the school have to be approved by the school’s administration. Parks said they ensure all posters put up around the school have respectful language appropriate for school. According to Parks, they do this not to censor any clubs, but to make everyone feel welcome and protected.

“If posters are going to be put up, they need to be approved because we’re not sure what language is being used on the posters or what graphics are being used on the posters. We want to make sure everyone feels safe in this community. And it isn’t to censor anyone, but is to ensure that everyone is safe,” Parks said.

Principal Lanisha Paddock said having tough conversations that challenge people to critically think about their position while being open to others is a crucial role of education.

“Education’s role is really teaching young people how to have difficult conversations in a way that allows them to be curious, that allows them to see the person across from them, their humanity, and it’s okay to without judgment or assumptions,” Paddock said.

“Years ago, I decided that I wasn’t going to tiptoe around issues, that it was important for me to try to give a balanced historical viewpoint, and that it was critical for the students to hear diverse perspectives,” Miller said.

Senior SOAR event organizer Makenna Allison said suppression restricts students’ ability to learn new perspectives, blocking students from creating a sense of individuality in their thoughts and opinions, creating replicas of one another.

“Censorship will make students more like carbon copies of each other, where people don’t really have that much free thought or think outside the box,” Allison said.

Principal Paddock said discussions should be held to better Park, and if they are creating a harmful learning environment, then people should reconsider having them or change their method.

“If this is the discussion that you’re bringing to the table, or if these are the things that we’re talking about, what’s the impact, and is that going to better our community? Because then it’s not going to better our community, or it’s going to make somebody feel unsafe, then we might need to rethink our approach, or rethink how we have conversations over hard, difficult topics. ” Paddock said.

Allison said SOAR has been substantially affected because of censorship. SOAR has to avoid certain topics because the way it addresses certain issues is unconventional, which may upset people.

“(SOAR is affected by school censorship) a great amount. SOAR can’t really touch on certain topics that we want to, and then I feel like SOAR is always barred from getting opportunities that maybe other groups might get because of just like how we touch on subjects that is not favorable by everyone,” Allison said.

Crouse said schools experience a different form of censorship, obstructing students’ ability to have high-yielding conversations.

“The real world does not have the same type of censorship that is in schools. So I think when we stop students from learning about certain topics, we block their ability to think critically and to be able to engage in a productive way with people’s ideas that are different from their own,” Crouse said.

Freshman Finn Staub said students’ freedom of speech could be altered by not believing in themselves, prompting them not to speak out for fear of being punished.

“Sometimes students’ freedom of speech can be affected by what other people might read. They may not believe in themselves, and they may think that they will be penalized for speaking out. I do think that it’s monitored, but sometimes it might not be censored,” Stuab said.

Hannora Course said students can dodge censorship by continuing to advocate for themselves and their peers about topics they feel passionate about.

“Students can continue to speak out about things that are important to them, continue to share their opinions and organize with other students (to maintain our freedom of speech),” Crouse said.

Hiestad said the SPLC equips students with the knowledge of their local laws to approach their administration with their rights.

“A matter of arming the students with what the law is, what the rights are, and they can go back in and have a conversation with the principal and put a copy of the law on their desk,” Hiestad said.

Assistant Principal Parks said we can protect ourselves against censorship by continuing to think critically about the information we receive to form our own position. According to him, furthermore, with AI and misinformation circling the news, people could become victims of repeating it, furthering the cycle.

“I have a lot of concerns with AI chat, GPT social media, people creating their own perspectives and their own ideas. If people aren’t able to do that, and there’s creating their own ideas through a machine, that censorship in itself. So I hope people can continue to create their own ideas and perspectives, but in a psychologically safe way, because right now I’m seeing a lot of they’re not many perspectives out there that are original.” Parks said.

Hiestad said going forward, students can protect themselves from censorship by principled, concrete practices because they can shield themselves from people or administration attempting to take it down.

“The big thing, I tell students, so you’re important, the biggest thing, you know, that you can do for me and do for yourself is simply, and it’s the thing that’s in your control, is to do good journalism, practice good, solid, quality journalism so much easier for me and others and yourself. Stand up and defend, you know, a piece that’s well written,” Hiestad said.

Opara said it is important for multiple perspectives to be published to fully encapsulate the topic, allowing people to make educated decisions they may not have come to with only one perspective.

“There always needs to be counter-narratives to everything, just so people can question, be critical, and oppose sometimes or actually follow something that they didn’t think they would,” Opara said.

Hiestad said censoring a group is a strategic maneuver to limit their power, defining it as anyone telling someone they can’t say something they feel should be said, which is a cardinal part of school.

Stuab said freedom of expression is crucial for how we communicate with others and for sharing opinions and beliefs.

“(I) think freedom of speech is important because it really just lets us express ourselves and also understand other people and how they feel,” Stuab said.