As 17 year olds, we are told that our opinion matters. We are told that we have the right to these opinions. We are told differing viewpoints make society more interesting.
But few people really mean it.
High school is a place where students should be able to express how they feel and explore new ideas without fearing whether it will affect their lives a decade later. When trying to write a column about the procedures for including controversial books in the school library, something that we both felt strongly about, my classmate Jackson Drum and I had to take into consideration the backlash that we would likely receive. We think that criticism is a good thing and people should speak out about how they feel. But we worry those viewpoints might be used to punish us in the future.
Journalist Alexi McCammond was forced to resign after tweets from high school resurfaced a decade later. McCammond is a successful journalist, even included in the Forbes 30 under 30 in 2020. But because of racist tweets that she made about Asians in 2011, she was forced to resign from her dream job as head of Teen Vogue.
Although the tweets that she made in 2011 are unacceptable, they were made almost a decade before she got her new job, and she has had ten years to change as a person. Everyone makes mistakes when they are teenagers, and she made many posts trying to get people to understand that she has changed.
As we get older we notice that if someone does not agree with you, you will automatically be called names, and you will try to be “canceled.”
This leaves student journalists like us scared for our future. If I say something that my boss doesn’t agree with when I was 17 years old, and they find it when I am 37, should I fear for my job?
On one side of the spectrum, you might be praised and respected. But on the other side, you could be hated and bashed.
As students with a future ahead of us, how are we supposed to put our opinions out there, if we are still in fear of it affecting our future for the worst?
How are we supposed to write a controversial piece if we are constantly in fear of it hurting us more than helping us?
