From November 16-19 members of “The Weekly” traveled to Dallas, Texas to attend the National Scholastic Press Association (NSPA) 2017 conference. Each day we were able to select four to six different 50 minute sessions to attend.

As I scrolled through the event’s app, picking and choosing which classes I would like to attend, titles such as “Press freedom in independent school,” “Open forum for addressing censorship issues,” “Covering controversial topics responsibly,” and “Life and lawsuits with prior review” caught my attention.

After selecting “Open forum for addressing censorship issues,” I sat down in a room of probably 30 other students from across the country. Ranging from public schools in Alabama, to private schools in California, we all sat together with the common goal of trying to solve our own censorship issues.

As it turns out, the room was shocked to learn that our own school required a password protected website, how often our articles have been subjected to prior review, and our relationship with the school-wide community.

One of the panel members whipped out his phone and quickly googled Parker. Within seconds, he read aloud, “Francis W. Parker School educates students to think and act with empathy, courage and clarity as responsible citizens and leaders in a democratic society and global community.” Looking up from his phone, he looked confused– “And you have a private website?”

But we’re not the only ones who attend a school in which controversial ideas and articles are shut down despite the strong words of a mission statement. What surprised me, though was the widespread disrespect that student journalists receive all across the country. Whether that be intolerance from principals or back lash against controversial opinion articles in a majority liberal town, the voices of writers were being shut down from all different angles.

Before this conference, I had never thought about the large community of student publications around all 50 states. At this open forum on censorship, we were able to speak with seven representatives from the JEA Student Press Rights Commission. Many of the individuals on the panel have worked on the rights of student journalists for decades.

Especially in the wake of Trump’s anti-media rhetoric, each day it feels as if the vital role of the press escalates. More than ever, it’s important that the voices of all– both professional and student journalists– are heard.

In Dallas, I learned about “The New Voices” legislation that advocates are trying to pass all around in country. Governor Rauner actually signed this bill into law on July 29, 2016. Since then, student journalists across Illinois are now further protected in both their public high schools and colleges. Other states such as Maryland, North Dakota, Vermont, and Maryland have also taken action to sign “The New Voices” bill. Advocates are still battling in 16 other states ranging from Arizona and Florida to New York and Indiana to more fully protect the voices of students in public education systems.

Obviously at Parker, a private institution, despite the signature of Rauner on July 29, nothing changed. We are still subject to prior review and restraint with no limits by the school. Our words can be edited, deleted, and curbed to no end. But sitting in the small, humid basement room of a Dallas hotel, my spirits were lifted. As a member of “The Weekly,” it’s disheartening to see your own words and the work of your peers shot down for any number of reasons– and yet there are students of all ages across the country defending their right to keep on writing.

In many ways, the industry of journalism and truth is a dying breed. We no longer depend on a hand-delivered newspaper fresh off the press at our front steps each morning. Rather, within a number of seconds, thousands of articles, stances, and facts can be assembled on our cellphones. We live in a society where the original meaning of fake news– i.e. facts that are undoubtedly incorrect– sometimes means “alternative facts.” Until recently, I had accepted that facts, truth, and journalism were just eventually going to slip off the edge of a cliff until it would be too hard to save them– but after Dallas, and seeing 5,000 other student journalists working on their own news, this once fateful crisis seems a little less impending.

Like any paper, “The Weekly” has its flaws– but that does not mean we shouldn’t be able to report and express the facts and fair ideas, both involving praise and criticism, about the school and city around us.

Long before the founding of this country, journalism was a tool to expose the truth and spread revolutionary ideas. While an article in “The Weekly,” is by no means going to reform a decision in the Supreme Court, with each article courageously reported and written, students move away from the rising “alternative facts” philosophy and towards what the state of journalism should be.