We mentioned in Monday's editorial that high school students often long for excessive amounts of independence and freedom.
In terms of speech, we might have been mistaken.
It seems as if these days, students are more restricted in their views than their parents, so says a ground-breaking study released Monday.
The study, released in part by Ball State University's own J-Ideas, shows that three-fourths of high school students either don't know how they feel about or take for granted the First Amendment.
If you are one of those people, feel free to take quick read of it in the upper right hand corner of this page.
Meanwhile, allow us to join the herd of other concerned parties by saying, "This is a serious problem."
The First Amendment's importance cannot be understated. It is what gives us as citizens (and journalists) the right to express ourselves freely.
Ask any high school student to tell you that, or more than a few words of the amendment itself, and you might be left out to dry. According to the study, students might not appreciate the amendment's value because they simply do not understand it to begin with.
For example, according to 75 percent of those students, flag burning is illegal. Half of the total students polled also said they believe the government can restrict indecent content on the Internet.
Neither of which, by the way, is true.
Without the proper knowledge of this, or any other amendment or constitutional law, how can we expect students to respect them?
Music, perhaps?
Eighty-three percent of students polled said they should be allowed to express unpopular opinion. This might seem high, but compared to faculty (97 percent), principals (99 percent) and adults (95 percent), students are more afraid of expressing their views.
When asked, though, if musicians should be allowed to sing songs with lyrics that might be offensive, only 59 percent of adults said yes, where 70 percent of students did.
In other words, Slipknot and Eminem should be allowed to express their opinions more than students should, some of those teens say.
If this is where the future of our country is headed, we are in serious trouble.
U.S. educators need to do a better job of informing students about their rights as citizens and moreover why they should respect such important laws and amendments. Otherwise, the freedom on which this country is founded is in jeopardy.
That is, if we're still allowed to say that.
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