Free speech is, according to the government, a right that all people deserve no matter what. This means that there are no laws that can restrict someone’s right to speech. Or if those laws exist they will at least be unconstitutional.
The conversation about freedom of speech in a contained environment like Bethany, or a college, is slightly different. That conversation isn’t about what is lawful, but rather what is deemed acceptable. What will get someone “canceled” and what will get someone praise?
The real infringement on people’s free speech is not official or mandated, instead, it is present because of the fear of having an unpopular opinion. I have found that the older me and my classmates become we have more thorough opinions. Consequently, we also talk about them more.
One of the simple ways that we talk about our opinions more is in Michael’s advanced English class. Each week we write a journal entry containing all of our opinions and ideas about a certain topic. Then every Friday we have a discussion about this topic.
Even though we are talking about these things more, which is a good thing, there are still certain opinions that are unpopular to have. At this point, it is most likely obvious that these are specifically political opinions. In a recent Sightline survey about the 2020 presidential election, 80% of students said they would vote for Biden if old enough. The remaining portion either chose not to vote or to vote for Trump.
This is a very large collective bias, and Bethany is definitely a more liberal group of people. That is fine, except it leaves that 20 percent either not saying anything at all or risking losing friends. 11% percent of that 20 said they wouldn’t have voted, and I suspect that maybe up to half of them would have voted for Trump but didn’t want to write it down.
With that said, I think, comparatively, Bethany is a fairly safe place. Earlier I compared Bethany to colleges. I don’t think this is a fair comparison. I think that there is much more fear in colleges. Although there are, unfortunately, quite a lot of opinions that go unvoiced, there is no real danger to a more conservative student voicing a more conservative opinion. They are likely to feel or be judged, but they are not in danger. Compare that to someone who has stated, albeit, very conservative beliefs in a very liberal city, and gotten bricks thrown through their windows.
The more the students at Bethany talk to each other, the better it gets. However, there is still a bias to what can and cannot be said at Bethany. The most important thing to note, however, is that a teacher will not be part of this judging. They may very well disagree with a student but they will not show it. Even if the student infers that a teacher disagrees, which they likely could, they will still feel welcome to respectfully voice their opinion among teachers.