What are our rights as journalists inside the school? Our staff at the paper constantly battle this as reporters; however, very few students outside Room 226 are able to understand the struggle. MHS has something called public forum which means our administrators don’t review the stories and photos we cover inside our publications. But other schools in Missouri aren’t as lucky. Publications with bases in Hazelwood, Washington, and Joplin High School have no choice but to allow principals to review what their reporters write. 

Put it this way- if Marquette Messenger had prior review, our papers might be filled with word searches, and artificial jargon. Our Suicide Awareness issue, or in depth on fake ID’s may never have existed. In short, our reporting is real news because of our freedom from the shackles of prior review.

If a new bill called Walter Cronkite’s New Voices Act is passed in Missouri’s Congress, prior review will be blown out of the equation. The New Voices Act is a bill that focuses on protecting the rights of high school and college journalists at public institutions by allowing students to exercise their freedom of speech and press in school-sponsored publications. Doing so would be regardless of whether the school’s media is being supported financially by the school district. The New Voices Act, however, does not authorize slanderous or libelous journalism or media that breaks federal or state law. Currently, the bill is awaiting a vote on the House of Representatives Floor, and there is much more for the bill to go through before passing.

The bill’s effort will not only allow publications to be published without prior review, but also allow reporters to begin producing real news. One day, schools across Missouri may be similar to how we are here.