“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” It is common knowledge to all that this quote comes from the First Amendment, which states the government should not be able to take away Americans freedom of religion, speech, and the freedom of the press.  However this is becoming a controversial topic among schools across America.   “What gives schools the right to censor their students, or censor what the projects they do in school?” is a question that would get many different repsonses.  Either way the schools are part of America and so are the students that go to them.  Therefore the students should still be protected by the first amendment.
    “Expelling ‘Huck Finn’” by Nat Hentuff is a good example of how schools are censoring the books that are assigned to children in school.  The Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP is trying to get school boards and district superintendents to remove Mark Twain’s Adventure of Huckleberry Finn from mandatory reading lists.  The Pennsylvania State Conference of the NAACP argues that “tax dollars should not be used to perpetuate a stereotype that has psychologically damaging effects o the self-esteem of African American children.” (Hentuff 1)
    A while ago the author Hentoff talked to African American 8th grade students in a Brooklyn School.  The students were reading Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  When talking to one of the students about expelling the book because of racism, the boy retorted, “Do you think we are so dumb, that we don’t know the difference from a racist book and an ant-racist book.”(Hentuff 2)
    In 1998 Judge Stephen Reinhardt who is part of a three man-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, denied a law suit by a African American parent who also happened to be a teacher.  The parent was asking for the removal of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from mandatory reading lists in the Phoenix, Arizona schools.  Reinhardt wrote the  reason for this decision as follows; “Words can hurt, particularly racist epithets.  But a necessary component of any education is learning to think critically about offensive ideas.  Without that ability, one can do little to respond to them.”(Hentuff 2)
    The book Kaffir Boy is being looked at by school boards across the country to be censored.  The author of Kaffir Boy has spoken out about how upset he is about his book being censored in his article “If You Assign My Book, Don’t Censor It”.  Kaffir Boy is a real life story about the author Mark Mathabane.  In the story Mathabane tells us his brutal but ultimately triumphant story as a child in a family of nine growing up in poverty as a black person in the 1960s and 1970s.
     He is criticized for a scene in which he links up with some other kids who are starving.  The kids drag Mathabane into a situation Mathabane feels uncomfortable in.  The kids he linked up with are participating in a sex-for-food arrangement with migrant workers.  Mathabane runs away from the situation, doing what is right.  After running away Mathabane describes being shunned by the other kids because of his decision.
    This is the part of the book that gets the most criticism.  Many parents complain that this part of the book is way to graphic for their children to be reading in school, wanting schools to censor this part of the book.  Many schools have done just that, either deleting it from the book or reading an abridged version.  Mathane calls Kaffir Boy disturbing, but not pornographic.  He believes this scene in the book is a critical one, that makes a good point.  He says “resisting peer pressure is one of the toughest things for young people to do.  That is the lesson of the prostitution scene.  It’s a lesson that seems to be lost on people who want to censor my book.”
    Not only are books that students are reading being censored, but also pieces that students write, such as school newspapers.  Censorship in school newspapers is shown the article “Students Struggle Against Censorship”, by Lian Cheun. 
    In the ‘70s and ‘80s students were once able to publish a school newspaper that could not be tampered with by the school.  This was because under the 1st amendment the students had the freedom of the press.  This privilege was soon taken away due to the 1988 court case involving Hazelwood East High School a school near St. Louis.  There was a 5 to 3 decision in the Supreme Court that decided schools should be able to censor what their students are writing. 
    The ruling lead to many school newspapers being censored.  Oakland High School wanted to put a sex survey into their school newspaper.  The journalist claimed that the information would help show the high school had inadequate sex education, teen parenting, and pregnancy services.  The principle of the school battled against this being published, exercising his rights to censor the school newspaper, and the article was not published. 
    Students at San Fransico Thurgood Marshall High School are going as far as distributing an underground newspaper directly to students lockers. (Chuen 2).  A student-government poster put up at San Fransico Marshall High School had also recently been torn down by administration.  Nancy Otto of the ACLU, whom has filed suit on behalf of the students commented “I think the problem is the schools get very nervous when students talk about very charged issues because they think it might embarrass the school.  They [the school] often thinks it’s best to silence the students, but that often causes more problems.”(Cheun 2)   
    Cheun’s ending statement if students are covered by the Bill of Rights, then let them learn that with these rights come responsibilities.  Let students publish their works without censorship.
    People are protecting  children to much in today’s society.  People often complain that a book should not be read because of racist comments.  These people do not take into consideration that racism is a thing today that everyone deals with.   As Reinhardt said “Words can hurt, particularly racist epithets, but a necessary component of any education is learning to think critically about offensive ideas.  Without that ability, one can do little to respond to them.”  In other words part of learning to think critically about offensive speech is to understand the context which it was used.  Students can learn from racist remarks, the fact that they do effect peoples feelings and there is nothing good about them.  If you were to take them out of children’s readings then the students would be sure to make the mistake they had never learned about.
    Kaffir Boy is yet another book that people feel should be censored from children.  In the story there is a rather disturbing scene, people argue that the scene is pornographic and they do not think it is age appropriate.  However what people do not look at is  in the end the main character makes the right decision against amazing odds.  The reason the Mathabane describes the scene as he does is because he feels it has more of an impact.  He was starving and he was being offered food, all his friends were doing it, but he did not participate.  That is a bigger lesson in itself then the scene.
    Along with books high school papers should not be censored.  Students can teach each other through these papers.  For example Brenda J. says “My parents were divorced when I was pregnant my junior year.  Who else will know this subject better than I do? I lived through it.” (Cheun 2)  From this students would learn what it would be like to go through that kind of situation.  It would do nothing but better  would prevent a lot of teens to become pregnant because they would hear of the hard times Brenda J. went through.
    If Americans keep letting schools censor our students and what they read it will take on a snowball effect.  Eventually students will not be able to learn about the religion of the Hindus or the Jewish people, because their religion is not the one people believe in.  Students will no longer be able to dissect frogs or worms because that is animal cruelty.  If a parent doesn’t want their child to learn about the different religions that make up the world today or if a parent does not want their child dissecting a frog then simply meet with the teacher and I am sure something could be arranged.  We need to take control of it now and give students their 1st amendment rights.
    When schools censor things from our students, our students are not truly getting a full education.  Not everyone needs to know how to use calculus to solve how fast a cone with a diameter of 2 pi will fill up with water, but they do need to know how to deal with racist comments, and they do need to understand that they can write anything they want however people might now agree. Students learn these life lessons through books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Kaffir Boy.  They learn these lessons through the reading and writing of school newspapers.  Our students need to be prepared for what life is going to bring them and they can not be unless we give them their 1st amendment rights.