Teenage Pregnancy Censorship: Non-Journalism Students Interviews
Here I asked non-journalism what their thoughts were on teenage pregnancy being written about in high school newspapers, and how they viewed censorship. Here are the responses I got.
"I think that is appropriate for teenage pregnancy to be discussed in high school newspaper articles. I believe that this is a topic that is extremely prevalent for high school students, and I think that it is important for safe sex to be encouraged. I think that the school should be allowed to review anything that is being submitted to the school, but I don't think that they should be ultra protective and not expose students to certain topics. I think that ignoring the topic, teenage pregnancy is indiscriminate and failing to expose students to something like this is just not really the right way to go about things if their concern is awareness and safety for their students. Also many students might not see this as a bad thing if it happened to them, so censoring these kind of articles would essentially make some people feel as though they are doing something wrong, even if they agree with teenage pregnancy" (Dan Elchediak, 14').
"I don't see why it would be a problem for schools to address teenage pregnancy in high school newspapers. I understand that freshman are young, but it doesn't mean that this is something that shouldn't be brought up to them. I know that my high school had some problems with censorship at times due to controversial articles being published, but never was an article not published. I think that students should have the right to write about just about anything as long as it isn't actually causing direct harm to someone, and I don't see why an article on teenage pregnancy does that. If everyone has consented to the article then it is totally ok in my eyes. In regards to censorship in general, I think that schools should be allowed to review articles, but I don't actually think they should be allowed to not publish an article or make major changes, for it they do then they are taking away a students freedom of expression. While I was not actually involved in any journalism classes, I still found it interesting every week to get to read about what was going on in my high school, and I can definitely say that some of the articles were about some pretty serious issues, but it only rose awareness in my opinion" (Anonymous, 13')
"Not having actually been in a journalism class, I'm not really sure how to comment on this except to say that I don't think that teenage pregnancy is a topic that shouldn't be discussed. I understand why administrations may see it as a problem for they don't want to seem like they are encouraging this type of behavior, but I actually think that by not addressing this problem then they are actually maybe making the problem worse. I know that my school had an article where a girl who was pregnant was interviewed, and then there was a small segment regarding teenage pregnancy that followed. The article without a doubt caused some talk, but in the end the whole school was much more encouraging of her situation, and instead of just staring and jumping to conclusions, we were able to know her story from the interview. The segment that followed also did not advocate teenage pregnancy instead it just addressed some facts, so I don't see why this is a problem. I don't think that schools should be allowed to censor students, for I think that some of the most important topics are the ones that may be a bit controversial, and I think that students should be allowed to voice their opinions, for high school is a place where students are supposed to grow, and begin discovering who they are" (Anonymous 14')
"I don't see why it would be a problem for schools to address teenage pregnancy in high school newspapers. I understand that freshman are young, but it doesn't mean that this is something that shouldn't be brought up to them. I know that my high school had some problems with censorship at times due to controversial articles being published, but never was an article not published. I think that students should have the right to write about just about anything as long as it isn't actually causing direct harm to someone, and I don't see why an article on teenage pregnancy does that. If everyone has consented to the article then it is totally ok in my eyes. In regards to censorship in general, I think that schools should be allowed to review articles, but I don't actually think they should be allowed to not publish an article or make major changes, for it they do then they are taking away a students freedom of expression. While I was not actually involved in any journalism classes, I still found it interesting every week to get to read about what was going on in my high school, and I can definitely say that some of the articles were about some pretty serious issues, but it only rose awareness in my opinion" (Anonymous, 13')
"Not having actually been in a journalism class, I'm not really sure how to comment on this except to say that I don't think that teenage pregnancy is a topic that shouldn't be discussed. I understand why administrations may see it as a problem for they don't want to seem like they are encouraging this type of behavior, but I actually think that by not addressing this problem then they are actually maybe making the problem worse. I know that my school had an article where a girl who was pregnant was interviewed, and then there was a small segment regarding teenage pregnancy that followed. The article without a doubt caused some talk, but in the end the whole school was much more encouraging of her situation, and instead of just staring and jumping to conclusions, we were able to know her story from the interview. The segment that followed also did not advocate teenage pregnancy instead it just addressed some facts, so I don't see why this is a problem. I don't think that schools should be allowed to censor students, for I think that some of the most important topics are the ones that may be a bit controversial, and I think that students should be allowed to voice their opinions, for high school is a place where students are supposed to grow, and begin discovering who they are" (Anonymous 14')