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Free speech is one of the key conditions we were granted when we created this country. Free speech and freedom of religion are two of the greatest freedoms we have. However, now you only find these freedoms only if you share the same ideologies as the majority. Teenagers are becoming more involved with state, national and world politics and political issues. A growing number of teens are learning that it's ok to think their own thoughts and not to believe what is told to them solely on the basis that someone told them. I would say that it's unfair to limit the voice of America's youth. School newspapers and research papers are two specific places where free speech is scrutinized for the high school student. But what's also worse, is that not only is the student's free speech revoked in high schools, but the teacher's as well.

This past week in Indianapolis, Indiana, a teacher was fired for trying to use The Freedom Writers Diary in the classroom. (The Freedom Writers were a group of students who were at-risk students that the system gave up on and deemed "unteachable." But a teacher named Erin Gruwell came in and showed them comparisons between Anne Frank: Diary of a Young Girl and Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Sarajevo and their own troubled lives in Long Beach, California. It touched a nerve, and thus began the love of writing. She got them writing about their lives and the adversity they deal with, including gangs, violence, welfare, drugs and alcohol, broken families. All 150 of those students not only graduated high school but went on to college.) However, the school board didn't like the fact that they used some crude language and talked about drugs and violence, so they denied her request. The teacher sent out permission forms to all of the parents of these students, and 149 of the 150 sent the form back with permission to use The Freedom Writers Diary as part of the required reading in the classroom. The students were into it; everyone was excited to read it. Kids were learning, and they were happy. That is, until the school board decided that it wasn't appropriate and fired their teacher for insubordination.

A few years ago, another Indiana teacher was fired for saying, "I honk for peace," as a response to an elementary student's question of whether she would ever join in at a peace march. She took her case to the federal court, saying that her freedom of speech rights had been violated. They simply told her that as a

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