While I may only be 18 years old, federal laws have silenced me since 1988.

Stripped of my right to freedom of speech with the implementation of Hazelwood laws-- enacted after the Supreme Court ruling in favor of the Hazelwood School District in the court case Tinker vs Hazelwood-- high school journalists all over the United States, including myself, have lost our "unalienable right" to speak our minds in print.

As student journalists, our job dictates that we tell the truths that others attempt to bury under meaningless pop-culture pieces. If the stories printed in the paper do not provoke emotion and push the envelope, the paper has failed to accomplish its purposes--however, the Hazelwood laws infringe on our first amendment right to create stories that do so. If an administrator finds an article too vulgar or too explicit, they possess the power to cut said article from print– no questions asked. This means my right along with the right of high school journalists across the country to publish pertinent stories is limited by the opinions of people who may lack our innovative mindsets. A topic deemed inappropriate or too sensitive can become barred, and administrators may enforce disciplinary actions against us for further writing on the subject.

I recently experienced the unjust consequences of the Hazelwood laws and found myself face to face with my principal due to a story that I wished to publish in my school newspaper concerning students at my school who took to social media in an attempt to become “political activists.” The students that I intended to interview had taken to Twitter earlier this year armed with the hashtag #fightforbright to protest a teacher who faced potential expulsion from the school for allegedly abusing a female student after she entered his classroom and attempted to attack him. My principal said that I could not write on the matter unless I wanted to face disciplinary consequences. End of story.

There comes a point along the journey of intellectual maturity when parents and pastors and professors can no longer protect children from seeing, reading, or learning about topics that could potentially upset them. If society continues to shelter Generation Y from uncomfortable topics until they reach adulthood, the generation as a whole will lack the ability to efficiently deal with sensitive material. How can my peers take part in underage alcohol consumption, substance abuse and premarital sex but cannot read a 500-word feature story on the uprise of political activism by use of social media?

Columnist Kirsten Powers said it best. In John Stossel’s "The War on Free Speech" segment from his Fox News hour, Censored in America, Powers stated: “Students have a real intolerance of being able to hear from other people...People say that these students are little snowflakes and cannot handle [hearing things that might offend them]. But I say that they are not fragile."

The federal government, as an institution that serves to protect not only its citizens but the rights of its citizens, cannot limit free speech. Especially free speech in the media. Putting a restriction on what people can and cannot say directly puts a restriction on their liberty. By telling high school students to censor themselves in order to ensure that they do not offend anyone, high school administrations inadvertently communicate to students that every disagreement they encounter is a personal assault. By prohibiting me from publishing a story out of fear that it may hurt someone’s feelings or make a student uncomfortable, my high school principal told me that I should revere the comfort of others over the precedence of the truth.

Although silenced, I still stand firm in my belief that journalists, even student journalists, must have the right to print stories regardless of potential discomforts that may accompany them. My principal says that I have crossed the line that my story cannot lie upon paper for the eyes of high school readers that my voice cannot meet the ears of students, but I still desire to tell the truth and pave the way for fellow student journalists to publish stories that stir emotion and change minds.

More than discussing “who wore what” or “who is dating who,” journalism must discover the truth, tell the story and change the world. To be effective, journalism must achieve its full potential and push the envelope. Write to inspire discussion! Write to incite rebellion! Write to propel change! Change cannot happen if we continue to censor America.

While I may only be 18 years old, I am not young and vulnerable.

And I am done being silenced.