Free Speech, With Guidance

In an increasingly divided, partisan nation, the idea of shying away from others’ viewpoints is reprehensible. We cannot afford to turn our backs, plug our ears, or only spend time with those who think like we do. But as students, at colleges and high schools alike, the movement for absolute, unrestrained free speech is complicated. As with anything we learn, time must be devoted to processing new information. While we, as editors of the school newspaper and self-described “pugnacious intellectuals,” are ardent supporters of free speech, it is pertinent to call attention to the dearth of support systems and inability of the general school population to use such incidents of controversial speech to provoke constructive, lasting change to ensure an inclusive community.

We vehemently disown the idea of safe spaces as escape routes. The prevailing idea has become that safespaces are meant to be insulated bunkers where one only has to interact with echoes of their own ideas. This is not what safe spaces are meant to be. Nothing will go away by excusing yourself from the conversation. We would like to propose an alternative view of what these places are meant to be: an area where students have access to the resources needed to recuperate strength and plan a response to the conversation or discussion they just participated in or observed. Here should be counselors or teachers, trained in mediation and conflict resolution, who can also provide emotional comfort and support. Furthermore, all students should encouraged to sustain a constructive dialogue. Training in doing this should be administered by professionals in small-group settings at the beginning of every year–perhaps in Black Knight Time. In this way, as a community, we could minimize the need for safe spaces, if every student takes it upon themselves to present both sides of the argument in almost every situation.

But it is important now to note that our aim is not to advocate for a whitewashing of the speech or ideas at our school. Many people’s viewpoints are hurtful and even hateful–we do not suggest that they be given no platform to speak. School is a place of education–both purposefully and sometimes, unpurposefully, a place to learn and experience first hand the adversity and discrimination that plague society. This is integral to the education high school offers: controlled exposure to the real world. Yes, this is a privileged thought: many people do not have the choice to “leave” the harsh reality of the world at 3:50 P.M. We do, which may be why we are able to say things like this–school is not a place that we need to come to escape. But school cannot be that place: learning is uncomfortable. Growing hurts. Solidifying your own views requires being open to others’, and advocating yours to the point that they prevail.  

This is true diversity.