In an American society that is increasingly watchful, we are losing our greatest tool to combat ever-encroaching government. It is a tool that indeed keeps our liberties in highest regard and exercises those freedoms on a daily basis.

We are losing our journalism, and it is starting at the most critical and crucial level. As a society, we are eradicating high school journalism. Granted, this is the infancy of what journalism becomes and should right be seen as something to grow from. This is the stage where students become interested in the fundamentals of what it means to be a journalist. It is a place to learn the ethics of a free society and cultivate the mindset of what will become true writers with their finger on the pulse on modern (and niche) societies. It is only after such exposure to these things that a young person can truly be interested in one of our greatest tools and careers. The seeds of journalism must be planted to bear the fruits of justice and liberty.

Locally we have all but relegated high school journalism to unimportant electives and club status. East Bakersfield High School, just down the road from Bakersfield College and with a long-standing student newspaper tradition, is stopping its presses indefinitely. While on paper, the district stands firm that class sizes and budget cuts forced these issues; however, the long time teacher of journalism at EBHS felt that this is a matter of clever timing, not budgetary constraints. Those schools, although it cannot be explicitly proven, used this framework to erase much of the programs in the county.

The argument is made that, since they are high school students the issue of free press is moot. Instead of using such an instance at EBHS as a teaching tool that truly mirrors the journalism world, the powers that be quelled any student voice and slashed the program.

This type of behavior, the degradation of journalism at a high school level and suppression of true journalism, has negative effects on young students that are clearly two-fold.

As a community, we are denying students a legitimately diverse career choice that they may be interested in. Secondly, again as a community, we are giving high school students a demonstrative model for what journalism is supposed to protect against. Of the latter, we are feeding the idea wholesale to high school students that journalism isn’t important or viable. The worst part is that most students will accept that example as one to follow, perpetuating a cycle of apathy toward the sword against tyranny that is journalism.